Jinx
by jinakel wohess
Summary: Duo's capture by a struggling OZ faction introduces the Gundam boys to a new assassin...and to new danger that threatens the former Gundam pilots. Warning: slight Relena-hating and OC. This is my first fanfic, and it gets kinda crazy in parts. Be kind.
1. Return to OZ

Hey everyone!  I just wanted to give you guys a little something to read since I'm not going to write a whole lot for the next few days (I have four tests down and have two labs, one presentation, and one more test to go for this week – did I mention college sucks?)  So anyway, **this is the first fanfiction I have ever written!**  Be kind and don't knock it too much.  It gets crazy in places and isn't very well written in others (I hope I've improved since then…), but I'm attached to it since it is my first.  And the beginning is cool anyway.  Just thought I'd post it for the hell of it.  Enjoy!    

**DISCLAIMER** – I do not own Gundam Wing

Chapter One 

Duo Maxwell slowly came back to consciousness, willing his eyes to take in his surroundings.  Small room, gray walls, gray floor, gray ceiling, gray door and no windows.  An OZ prison cell.  This was all too familiar.  But why the hell was he in an OZ prison cell, years after OZ had been defeated?  

"Damn," he muttered to himself as he rose to a sitting position on the cold floor, rubbing his aching head.  Why couldn't Heero have been the one to get captured?  After the wars ended, Duo and Heero had decided to work together in a salvaging yard.  Duo had sent Heero on an errand earlier that day.  Sure, he and the other ex-Gundam pilots always thought it was wrong how they used Heero as a go-for, but the boy needed a mission.  He had trouble adjusting to life with peace instead of war.  And so Duo had sent him to go pick up some pistons and converters from another guy.  While Heero was gone, some smart-ass started bothering Duo, asking stupid questions about the junk he was selling.  And as Duo's attention was focused on this guy, his cronies came up from behind him and smacked him on the head.  

And then he woke up here.  Duo rubbed the back of his head, pissed about the bump protruding under his hair.  His hair.  Duo smiled.  No matter how good they think they are, OZ guys just don't ever think about searching his hair.  Duo's hand moved to the place behind his ear, where he kept his picklock.  

He chuckled at himself a little.  And he had thought about not carrying this around anymore.  Old habits die hard.  And I'm not so easy to kill off either, he thought.  

His handcuffs clattered to the ground.  Duo rose to his feet and began to search for a way to get out of this prison cell.

­­­­*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   * 

Sally Po took cover in the doorway leading to the cellblock detention area.  She hoped they weren't too late to get to Duo.  Earlier that afternoon, Heero had contacted Noin as soon as he had reached the junkyard where he and Duo lived and seen Duo's blood on the ground, but no Duo.  Noin didn't seem too surprised that something had happened, and neither did Heero, but then again, Heero wasn't exactly the easiest man to read.  They both had suspected something would happen soon.  That's why Noin had ordered her Preventor spacecraft to remain in the L4 colony cluster after the last mission.  

Of course it would all happen in L4, Sally thought.  That's where the action was.  The Gundam pilots all lived around here, due to Quatre's generosity.  Who wouldn't accept money and provisions from the heir?  Even the Preventors stopped by whenever their missions took them near L4 to get a free place to stay and some good food.  And Quatre was extremely happy to help everyone.  Duo and Heero were staying on the same colony as his main mansion, but they lived in the junkyard district to carry out their salvage business.  But they did leave the junkyards behind and stay up at the main house with Quatre whenever they felt like it.  Trowa and Catherine were busy in the circus, but came back every year when the circus was off-season.  Wufei returned whenever he had vacation time from the Preventors.  And right now, Relena was on the colony.  This was definitely where all the action is.

"Sally," Mimic whispered, calling her back to real time.  "Maxwell's cell should be the third door on the left."  

Sally nodded in acknowledgement.  

"Remember," Mimic continued.  "Do not jeopardize his safety or yours.  You must be willing to carry out the mission to the fullest extent."

Sally nodded again.  She remembered the details of this mission and was determined to carry them out, regardless of her own feelings on the matter.  

She counted silently to three, and then rushed down the hallway to retrieve Duo, while Mimic ran in the opposite direction.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Heero cursed the speed of his shuttle, or lack thereof.  He and Duo had been working on this piece of junk, literally, for months.  They had been making it from scratch, and now he knew why they hadn't used it before.  But it was all he could get his hands on at the last minute, and he had taken off for Noin's ship the moment after he called her to report Duo's disappearance.  

On route, he'd received a message from Relena, reporting that a surviving OZ faction still existed and they had kidnapped Duo.  She said that they threatened to torture then kill Duo if she didn't recognize them as rulers of the United Alliance, the new peaceful organization of colonies and earth that she was now president of.  They were giving her until 18:00 to make her decision, for that was when Duo's torture would begin.  It was already 17:37.  She had been crying when she called him, and he told her not to worry.  Noin was already on the mission and Duo was as good as rescued.  He hoped, for his friend's sake, that he had been right.  

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Duo was pacing in his cell, looking for a weak spot.  Sirens started going off in the hallway, and the lights of his cell dimmed.  This may just be his chance.  He was about to test the strength of the door against his running body when the door burst open, and Sally Po stood in the light of the hallway.

"Whoa!" Duo yelled crashed to floor to avoid mowing her down.  He skidded until he bumped into her legs.  "Am I glad to see you!"

Sally jerked in surprise as Duo threw his arms around her neck in a gracious hug.  "What are you doing?" she stammered.  "Do you not realize we're in the middle of a rescue here?"

Duo grinned sheepishly and brushed his bangs out of his face.  "Sorry there, Sal.  I got a little carried away."

"Well here," she said, thrusting the butt of a pistol in his stomach.  "Let's get out of here while we still can."

Together, they ran through the hallways of the OZ space base toward the shuttle hangar.  Small explosions from gunfire went off all around them and occasionally one of them would turn and fire to cover their backsides.  Duo could see the entrance to the hangar ahead.  As they rushed into the hangar and away from the OZ soldiers, he thought he heard one of them shout, "I've captured him, Sir!" but the noise of the guns and small explosions was too intense for him to be certain.  

He and Sally climbed into a shuttle and took off from the base, back to safety.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Heero glanced at the time as he stood in the command deck of Noin's Preventor craft.  17:56.  He was hovering over the same monitor he'd looked at when he first boarded Noin's ship, the monitor that showed the view in direction of the OZ base.  His body was tense, and his grip on the edge of the chair in front of him was starting to bend the metal frame.  

Noin took in the appearance of Pilot 01.  She could tell that he was beyond worried.  He had come to her ship immediately after calling her about Duo's disappearance, not even taking the time to change from his dirty jeans and an untucked light gray mechanic's shirt with the name "Bob" stitched onto the left front pocket.  Duo had been dressed similarly, she found out after their initial conversation of Duo's kidnapping, except his shirt said "Earl."

Finally, he breathed an inward sigh of relief, and relaxed.  A shuttle came into view, zooming from the OZ base.  

Sally hailed Noin's ship.  "Commander Noin?"

Smiling, Noin answered, "Yes, Sally?"

"Mission complete."

"Good job, Sally.  I take it Duo's alright?"

A cheerful voice piped up from the background, "Of course I am!"  Duo's smiling face appeared in front of Sally's.  "And I have to say, Noin, I am very grateful to you and Sally for helping me out in all this."

"No problem at all, Duo," Noin lied.  Of course, she would have done anything to save one of the Gundam pilots, but this mission carried a heavy price.  It was a problem, but she'd never let him know it.  

"See you in 45 seconds," Duo said, signing off.  

Noin walked over to Heero.  "Would you like to come with me to meet them in the hangar?"

Heero didn't speak, but he did crack a slight smile and barely nod his head.  

Boy, he hasn't changed much, Noin thought.  She walked with him in silence to the hangar.  The pilots were older now.  Heero was about nineteen by now, and he was taller than her.  Of course, his shoulders were broader and he had filled out to become a lean and muscular man, with all the lifting and moving of junk he did with Duo.  But despite the physical differences, his personality had hardly changed.  He was still the silent giant he always had been, and his eyes still had a taint of impersonal coldness that they had before, though now the deep blue eyes seemed a little warmer, she thought.  Perhaps being friends with a hyper, loudmouthed sidekick like Duo had softened his stone heart a little.  

At the hangar, Heero waited impatiently for Duo to emerge from the shuttle.  His eyes were locked expectantly on the hatch of the recently landed vessel.  

First, Sally came out, laughing.  Duo's voice reached Heero's sensitive ears, and he knew Duo had just told her a joke.  Duo was still talking as he climbed out of the hatch.  His blabbering stopped when he saw Heero.

"Heero!  I didn't know you would be here, man!"  Duo firmly gripped his friend's shoulder, happy to be reunited with him.  He wanted to hug Heero in jubilation, but a hand on his shoulder was about all the affection the Perfect Soldier could handle.  So instead, he hugged Noin.  

"Wha?" Noin looked confused.

"Don't worry," Sally said coming up from behind.  She, too, put a hand on Heero's shoulder in greeting.  "He's been hugging everyone today."

"Well," Noin said, peeling Duo off of her.  "Don't wrinkle the suit.  We're receiving President Relena's shuttle in fifteen minutes.  And try to behave."

Duo faked a look of wounded pride, then grinned from ear to ear.  

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Preventors Noin and Po stood with the two ex-Gundam pilots awaiting Relena's exit from her shuttle.  She didn't come.  Confused looks passed between all of them, except Heero, who was impassive as normal.  Noin shrugged to Sally, and started to enter the shuttle herself.

Guards blocked them from going to see Relena.  They gave some pitiful excuse about Relena being too upset to accept visitors, but Heero shut them up with a stern look.  Then they caught sight of Duo, and stood there with their mouths open as he passed by.

"Weird," Duo commented quietly so that only Heero could hear.  "They act like they've just seen a ghost or something."

"Very weird," Heero replied.  

Relena saw Noin approaching, and began to scream at her with tears streaming down her face.  "You promised!  You promised me that he would be safe!  You lied to me!"  Relena shut her eyes tight and rushed at Noin.  

Duo stepped out from behind Noin and caught Relena.  Relena began flailing her clenched fists, hitting Duo on the arms and chest.  "Hey, now," he said in his best comforting but happy tone of voice.  "What's wrong?"

Her head slowly lifted up to look at him, tears brimming in her blue eyes.  "DUO!" she screamed and threw her arms around his neck, nearly choking him with her ferocity.  

Thoroughly confused, Duo wrapped his arms around her and hugged her back.  "Of course it's Duo, who else would I be?" he joked.  

He barely heard Heero mutter, "You'd be dead."

"Huh?"  Duo looked over at Heero, scared.  "Relena, tell me what's going on."

"The message," she stammered.  "The message they sent me.  The message."

"What message?" Duo asked, still trying to get information from her.

Heero had given up on counting on Relena for the answer.  He walked over to her desk and turned the screen around so everyone in the room could see the blank monitor.  Heero used one hand to type a command, and suddenly an image brightened on the screen.  It was a replay of the last call that Relena had received.

"President Peacecraft," a scruffy looking man wearing an OZ uniform addressed her.  "We are most pleased to inform you that despite the attempts to reclaim the Gundam Pilot Duo Maxwell, we continue to hold him in our custody.  And since it is now 18:00 and we have received no answer from you concerning our demands, it is my pleasure to present you with this…"  He indicated a group of men standing behind him, surrounding a figure strapped to a strange wall.

Duo continued to hold Relena, who kept her head buried in his chest, as he walked closer to the screen.  He didn't understand.  He had escaped with Sally…

They watched as the men parted, and the person on the wall was revealed.  His dark chestnut hair was pulled back in a long braid, with bangs that covered his eyes.  He was wearing a pair of blue jeans that were littered with spots of grease and rust.  The light gray mechanic's shirt had the name "Earl" stitched onto the left front pocket.  They watched in horror as the scruffy looking man flipped a switch on the wall and the body of the mechanic jerked violently as jolts of electricity ran through him, then stopped.  The man never screamed.  The torture continued.  Two, three, four times.  With each flip of the switch, the time of exposure to the high voltage torture increased.  But the man never screamed.  The men standing around seemed disappointed.  

The scruffy looking man reappeared on the screen, standing next to the prisoner whose head was bowed down, as it had been through the entire ordeal.  "So, President Peacecraft, do you think we're bluffing anymore?"  He laughed manically.  "President, I will give you one more chance to save your friend, since you no longer can doubt the severity of the danger he is in.  Respond to us by 20:00, or the torture will result in death."  At that, the man reached over to the prisoner and grabbed him by the hair.  He yanked the prisoner's head back, revealing his face.  Even through unspeakable torture, his fully conscious eyes radiated contempt and defiance.   

Duo stared at the screen.  His own face stared back at him.

________

Read and review if you wish.  Like I said before, this is simply my first fanfic written, and I finally decided to go ahead and post it. 


	2. Mimic

**DISCLAIMER** – I do not own Gundam Wing.

Chapter Two 

Duo was thoroughly confused.  He had a twin?  What the hell was going on?

Heero glared at Noin.  "So that is why you were so insistent in wanting to know what Duo was wearing," he accused.  

Noin closed her eyes.  "Yes," she spoke softly.  "It was the only defense we had."

The silence that followed irritated Duo.  He looked at Sally.  Her head was in her hands as she mourned the upcoming death of her fellow Preventor.  He looked at Heero.  His arms were crossed on his chest, and he was still glaring unrelentingly at Noin.  He looked down at Relena.  She wasn't moving anytime soon.  He finally looked at Noin.  Her head was bowed in shame.  She had been the one to send this poor guy off to die in Duo's place.  She had developed the mission in the last minute to save him.  Save Duo by killing off someone else.  It rubbed Duo the wrong way.  

He couldn't contain himself any longer.  "Spill it," he ordered.

Noin looked up at him, her eyes pleading for forgiveness.  "Mimic has been an agent with us for three years, since the OZ overthrow and development of the Preventors.  She's incredible in her mimicry of attitudes, walks, and the general conduct of anyone she sees…"

"She?" Heero spoke up.

"Yes, she's a girl," Noin admitted.  "In the short amount of time we had, it was the only choice to make sure Duo got out alive.  The original plan was for her to just replace Duo in the cell, but then we got the idea to have her run in a direction opposite of the route Sally and Duo would be taking.  That would increase the chances of you two getting away. "

"So that's what I heard," Duo spoke his thoughts out loud.  "I heard the soldiers say they had caught someone as we were leaving.  I didn't know it was her."

"You weren't supposed to know.  No one was supposed to know.  We knew that if you or Heero were aware of someone taking your place in the prison…"

"You knew that we wouldn't agree to it," Heero interrupted.  

"Exactly."  

Heero and Duo were silent for a moment.  Mimic's face was still staring out at them from the screen.  Relena had settled down now that she knew that her friend was out of danger, but she didn't agree with what Noin had done.  She left Duo's arms and stalked closer to Noin. 

"How can you place values on human life?" Relena asked.  "Who made you the judge of whether or not to send someone to their grave, Noin?  Why do you decide that this girl is less important than Duo?  Such things are out of your hands."

"I know," Noin replied meekly. 

"Do not blame Noin for this," Sally spoke up.  "Jinx came up with this plan herself.  Noin only agreed to it."

"Jinx?" Duo repeated.

"Yes, that's her name.  That's what she's been called since she was working with OZ.  And she completely volunteered to die for you, Duo," Sally explained.  "She is happy to die for a Gundam pilot."

Heero looked over to Noin.  "She was your only defense?  You did a pretty poor job of it.  What will you do if they find out she's not Duo?  They'll kill her for sure then."

Noin just stood there, silent in her guilt.

Heero continued, "Her hair is the wrong shade of brown, and its too long.  And her eyes are violet, not blue.  You're lucky they don't pay much attention to detail."

Duo looked back at the screen, where Jinx's face looked defiantly at the camera.  Hmm, he didn't pay too much attention to detail either.  Now that the really looked at her, her face looked nothing like his.  But Heero was right.  Her hair was too dark and longer than his.  And her eyes were definitely the wrong color.  Thank goodness for the long braid; that's all people really noticed about him.

"We tried," Noin explained.  "It was hard enough finding clothes.  We tried to lighten her hair, but that's as good as we could get it.  And we tried to change her eye color, but her eyes just wouldn't turn blue.  We cut her hair, but I guess we didn't cut it enough."

Heero shook his head.  "It doesn't matter anyway.  No matter how much you altered her."

"What do you mean?" Sally asked.

Duo stepped forward, standing next to his friend.  "He means, we're going to get her back."

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

"Be careful," Relena's voice sounded small over the communicator.

"We will," Duo assured her, as he cut off transmission and focused on flying the shuttle as they neared the OZ base.  He glanced at Heero, who was checking the status of his semi-automatic.  Then Heero reached into the front pocket of his space suit, counting the light artillery grenades that Sally had given them. 

Duo hesitated before he spoke to his comrade.  "You aren't saying much."

"Do I ever?"

"Nope," Duo answered matter-of-factly.  "But I thought you might have something to say."

Heero continued with his weapons check.  "Concentrating on the mission."

"To get your mind off of Relena?"

Duo regretted bringing it up after Heero responded by glaring at him, the deep hurt showing in his eyes.  

"Sorry, man.  I shouldn't have said that."

Heero blinked and stared straight ahead, watching the OZ base grow bigger in the monitors.  "It's alright.  I deserve a dose of reality every now and then."

Duo smiled to himself.  Heero sure had changed over these last few years.  Though some other people may think he's the same ol' Zero Personality that he always had been, Duo knew better.  And the other pilots did too.  Heero was slowly regaining the humanity that OZ scientists had driven out of him.  

"They're on to us," Heero said, calling Duo's attention to the mobile suits headed in their direction.  Mobile suits?!  Those were supposed to be destroyed by now.  The Gundams were destroyed, so why do these bastards get to have mobile suits if he and Heero couldn't have any?

Duo shook it off his mind and concentrated on flying through the firing of the suits.  Didn't this seem familiar?  Heero was getting out of his seat, securing his helmet.

"What're you doing?" Duo asked.

"Getting ready to abandon ship.  We aren't going to last much longer if we try to land inside," he explained as he found Duo's helmet.  He put the helmet over Duo's head, mindful of the braid, and secured it since Duo's hands were busy piloting the shuttle.  

"They were ready for us," Duo said to him.  "This time they were prepared because they thought we'd try another rescue attempt."  He flew the shuttle at the base, full speed.  "They just didn't know that the first attempt was successful," he added with a smile in Heero's direction.  

Heero had his hand on Duo's shoulder, and smiled back.  His grip tightened as they neared the base.  He was ready to pull Duo out of that chair and shove him in the direction of the hatch as soon as they crashed into the base, head on.  It was their best chance.  

OZ sure wasn't expecting such seemingly suicidal behavior.  The mobile suit pilots stood in awe as the formerly stolen shuttle from their own hangar crashed into their base.  

Heero and Duo made it out of the shuttle, moments after impact and moments before the whole thing erupted in flames.  They clamored away from the exploding wreckage and through a hallway before the main explosion.  If they had been more exposed during that, they probably wouldn't have survived.  Heero cleared his mind of that thought.  He had a mission to accomplish.  And a girl to save.  OZ probably thought they were dead, which would make the mission a whole lot easier.  

Heero unstrapped the gun from his suit and brought it to bear on a few unlucky soldiers.  Duo had a pistol in his hand, the one Sally had given to him, and he backed up Heero during his little rampage through the hallways.  They found the cellblock easily, and because of their death-defying 'blow up the shuttle' stunt, there were no guards to be seen.  

"Go," Heero yelled to Duo over the noise.  Screaming sirens were warning the base inhabitants to cease all operations, a fire has been reported in the area, and instructing them to proceed in a calm and orderly manner to the nearest emergency evacuation area.  

Duo nodded and ran down the hallway to his old cell, third on the left.  He thanked himself for noting that as Sally dragged him away an hour ago.  It seemed like a dumb idea at the time, but now he was glad for his observation.  

He frowned.  The cells were locked down completely due to the evacuation.  No one could get in.  He only hoped that she was far away from the door as he placed a grenade in the door handle and performed a running dive down the hall.  

The explosion was loud, and he was sure it'd attract some attention.  Duo shook himself off and swore.  His arm was bleeding.  Shrapnel sucks.  Running back to the door, he found that he had blown it completely off its hinges.  Great, she was dead for sure now.

Duo heaved the door aside, hoping for the best.  Jinx was there, far away from the door.  But she was on the floor, curled up into a ball.  Duo ran to her side.

"Hey," he called to her.  "Hey, Jinx.  Come on, chick, you've got to wake up!  We've got to get out of here!"  At least she was breathing.

She moaned and moved just a little.  Damn, he thought, noticing the shard of metal embedded in her thigh.  That was his fault.  

"Come on," he said, reaching out to shake her.  Pain seared through his left arm.  He wouldn't be able to move that arm much.  Damn again.

"Here," Heero said, moving around to the other side of her.  Duo hadn't even noticed Heero come in, but he didn't dwell on it now.  He picked up Heero's semi-automatic and took a few grenades from Heero's chest pocket.  Heero bent over to pick the girl up.  

With Duo leading, they made their way toward the hangar.  Duo was following the exact route that he and Sally had used, because he knew no other way to leave an OZ base.  Heero followed his friend, cradling the mimic in his arms as they ran down the hallways.

Finding a shuttle was easy.  Every idiot on the base was going to the emergency pods, not the shuttles.  That left the hangar empty and easy to steal from.  Crashing their shuttle into the base ended up being a great idea.  Nothing like chaos to cover your back, Duo thought.

He flew expertly away from the base, heading directly toward Noin's vessel.  Heero never let the girl leave his arms.  And she never regained consciousness.  

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Jinx came to consciousness without opening her eyes.  Afraid of where she might be, she used her other senses to observe what was going on.  Her heart monitor was beeping steadily, and she kept herself from letting her heart rate get too high in order to mask her waking up.  She was in a soft bed, with warm blankets drawn up to her chin.  Huh?  OZ didn't give prisoners beds and blankets, or heart monitors for that matter.  Maybe she wasn't with OZ anymore.  She tried to think back to what happened.

She remembered those bastards trying to electrocute her.  She remembered them getting mad at her for not dying, and then they beat her.  That resulted in a broken right arm and two broken ribs, after they had hit her with a steel rod.  She remembered fighting to keep consciousness during and after the torture.  But after the beating and she was thrown against the back wall of her cell, she decided to stop fighting that.  And then she wakes up here.  

Nope, she decided.  Can't figure out where I am.

But there was a heart monitor going.  The incessant beeping reminded her of that.  And she felt tightness around her arm, leg and torso.  That meant someone had bandaged her up, and the tightness she felt was due to the gauze wrapped around her.  The faint smell of ointment permeated the room.  Someone was obviously trying to help her heal.

"You don't have to pretend anymore," a deep voice called to her.  "I know you're awake."

The rate of the heart monitor's beeping increased.  Reluctantly Jinx opened her eyes.  She shouldn't be afraid.  These people were trying to help her.  She saw a large light above her on the ceiling, but it was turned off.  It was nighttime and that made the room dark.  She turned her head to one side, in the direction of the voice.

The man was sitting in a chair, in front of a large window.  The slight light from outside was sufficient to completely silhouette him, making his identity impossible to determine.  She couldn't think straight anyway, she cursed.  The electricity seems to have scrambled her concentration, too.

The man stood next to her bed, looking down at her.  "You shouldn't have done that," he scolded.  "You shouldn't have tried to replace Duo with yourself."

How informally this man referred to Pilot Duo Maxwell, she thought.  

"You're wondering where you are?" he guessed, correctly.  "You're in the Winner Estate, in the L4 colony cluster.  We brought you here after retrieving you from the OZ prison.  Duo would be here in person, but he has his own wounds to heal right now.  The bump on his head still gives him a headache, and shrapnel from your cell door that we blew up embedded in his left arm.  That's where the wound on your leg came from."  He paused a minute, noting the slight look of confusion that crossed her face.  "I'm sure you were wondering," he explained.  

She stayed silent, her throat hurt and she was afraid to speak.  No one used electric shock for torture.  It damaged the body too much.  And Jinx was getting to experience that horror first-hand.  She looked up at the man with the kind eyes standing over her.  

"I'm Heero," he again answered all of her unasked questions.  "If you need anything, just say my name.  I'll be here to assist you."  Having established that, he walked away from her and back to the chair in the corner by the window. 

She watched him sit down, and succumbed again to the bliss of unconsciousness.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Jinx moaned a little as she roused herself from sleep.  The bright red shining through her eyelids told her that this time, she was waking up during the day.

"Hey," a cheery voice called out to her.  She heard the owner of the voice get up and walk to her bedside before she had a chance to open her eyes.  Jinx was looking up at Duo Maxwell.  "How are you doing?  Feeling any better today?"

Jinx tried to move, but winced as she felt pain in a hundred different places.  

"Hey, now," Duo said, putting a hand on hers.  "Don't try to move too much.  You'll hurt yourself even more."  He smiled good-naturedly at her.  "You're amazing.  The only person I know that could take this much pain," he said, "is Heero."  His grin widened.

Jinx felt embarrassed.  She hadn't completed her mission.  She had meant to die out there, but here he was, Duo Maxwell, smiling down at her like nothing had happened.  Like she hadn't failed.  The man she was supposed to save ended up saving her.  How pathetic.  She closed her eyes.

_Don't be so hard on yourself_, Duo thought.

"Why not?" her voice rasped as she answered him.

"Huh?" Duo asked, surprised.  

"Why shouldn't I be hard on myself?" she explained.

"You heard that?"

"Of course I did," she said, annoyed.  "You said it out loud."

Duo just stared down at her in total confusion.  She had heard his thoughts.  What was going on?  He tried to sensor what he was thinking, hoping she couldn't hear him anymore.

Jinx's eyes widened as she looked at Duo.  She had heard that, too.  She felt his confusion, and she heard his own voice inside her head as he thought.  "What's going on?" she asked back.

"I don't know," Duo answered.  "Have you always been able to do this?"

Jinx thought for a while.  Not since she'd left OZ did she do this kind of stuff.  And it was because of OZ that…

A blond-haired man walked into the room, smiling at the both of them.

"Quatre!" Duo said when he saw him.  Duo hugged his friend, careful with his left arm.  

"I heard that you and Heero were here," Quatre said, his voice soft and nurturing.  "Sorry I wasn't around to help you guys fight.  Having labor difficulties on one of the satellites."

Jinx's eyes widened again as they spoke.  Realization hit her square in the face.  These are the Gundam pilots.  The guy in her room last night was Heero Yuy.  This guy was Quatre Raberba Winner.  Why hadn't she recognized Heero's name last night?

"Hey, no problem, buddy," Duo said, leading Quatre to the bed.  "This is Jinx.  She's my mimic," he said with a broad smile and a look of pride, like having a mimic was a good thing.

"Nice to meet you," Quatre said, shaking her left hand since her right arm was injured.  "I am Quatre Raberba Winner, but you can just call me Quatre."

"Thank you," she replied with a bow of her head.  "And thank you for your help.  I haven't had a chance to thank Mr. Maxwell and Mr. Yuy yet."

"Hey, babe," Duo interrupted.  "There's no reason to thank us…Its our job."

"But…" Jinx began.

"No buts."  Duo put a finger on her lips to shush her.  "But now that Quatre's here, we need to get together with Noin and have a little discussion.  I'll be back later to check up on you, okay?"  _And keep this mind-reading stuff just between us for the time being_, he added.

"Alright," she said in answer to both his questions.


	3. Healing a Plague

DISCLAIMER – I do not own Gundam Wing.

Chapter Three

Heero was sitting at the conference table, with Noin, Sally, and Wufei.  Trowa was listening in on the conversation from where the circus was in the L2 colony cluster; his face was stern and quiet as always on the screen.  Duo and Quatre walked in to take their seats, making the idle chatter between Noin and Sally end as the meeting came to order.

Noin was the head of this conference.  "I'm glad we could all be here," she began, glancing around the table at everyone seated, and Trowa on the monitor.  "As we're all well aware, there is a new threat to peace.  And you Gundam pilots seem to be a target for this overlooked OZ faction…"

At the word "target" Duo mumbled, "What else is new?"

Ignoring his comment, Noin continued, "First, a status check.  Relena is returning to Earth as we speak, to meet with the other members of the executive counsel.  They will be in contact with us within the next few days.  Trowa is still in L2, and the rest of us are here.  Jinx, codename Mimic, is here as well and will stay until she recovers.  Everyone in immediate threat is accounted for."

Noin paused to take a breath as a couple of people shifted in their seats.  An elephant trumpeting was heard over the communicator.  

"Now," she continued, "what are we going to do about this situation?"

"Shouldn't we wait for the decision from the executive counsel?" Quatre asked.

"Ultimately, yes," Noin replied.  "But calling Trowa in to sit around and wait seems like a waste of time.  And keeping Wufei from his normal Preventor duties likewise seems like a waste of talent.  This is a waiting game now.  There's no sense in jumping to conclusions."

"I see," Trowa spoke up.  "So everyone will continue as if nothing has happened."

"Exactly."  Noin didn't like the idea, but that's what Relena had conveyed to her before Relena departed for Earth late last night.  

"But I'll have to stay here," Duo said.  "They probably think I'm dead or something."

"Yes," Noin agreed.  "Its best if you stay here where it's safer.  They obviously know where you and Heero live.  Besides, Sally, Wufei, and I will be on patrol around the L4 cluster, keeping an eye on that OZ base.  Someone should stay behind and make sure Jinx is alright."

"She can take care of herself."  Heero's voice surprised them all.  "She is a soldier."

"Regardless," Noin insisted, "I would feel better if…"

"We'll stay," Heero sternly interrupted.  

Well, Noin thought.  That's the end of that conversation.  She turned to Sally, "Let's get the ship ready for departure.  We'll leave in thirty minutes."

Sally and Noin were about to disappear through the doorway when Noin turned around to address the Gundam Pilots.  "We're glad to see you all again.  We'll keep in touch."

Wufei remained behind, to talk with his comrades a little before he left to meet Sally and Noin.  "Tell me about her," he said to Duo.

"She's incredible, man," Duo explained.  "She took electric torture…four times!  It was amazing.  And she was conscious throughout the whole thing.  Of course, she's paying for it now, but it was still unbelievable."

"Unreal," Wufei remarked.  "So where is she from?  And why didn't we know about her?"

"She's from L3," Trowa answered.  "I remember hearing about a girl on our cluster who survived the L3-X18 colony plague. She was the only one who lived through it.  They called her Jinx, a name that means curse and plague."

"That supports the information I've found," Heero added.  "But there is little else about her.  They wanted to keep her a secret."

"She seems nice enough to me," Quatre butted in.  

"_Now_ she does," Trowa warned.  "But she was an assassin."

The room grew quiet as the pilots contemplated the new information on this strange girl.

"So was I," Heero said, getting up and leaving the room.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Jinx stared out of the window, watching the shuttle containing Wufei Chang take off and head toward the ship where Noin and Sally must be waiting for him.  The three pilots on the ground watched as the shuttle disappeared into the atmosphere before they turned around to go back inside the mansion.  She never dreamed she'd be laid up in a Gundam pilot's mansion.  

She could hear Duo talking as they came closer to her door.  Damn, she thought, she didn't have time to get back in bed.  And those worrying boys would be mad at her for standing up by the window in her condition.  

"…no really, man, I'll show you."  She heard the end of Duo's conversation as he and Heero entered her room.  

"Hey, you're not supposed to be up," Duo said, coming over to her.  

"Is Trowa Barton not here?" she asked, ignoring him.

"No, he's busy on L2 with the circus."  Duo took her by her good arm and tried to lead her back to her bed.  She wasn't budging.

"Circus?"

"We have interesting ways of passing the time when there aren't any battles to fight," Heero explained in his monotonous voice.  He sure wasn't very personable today like he seemed to be last night, Jinx thought.

"Yea, he's really good.  In fact, I think he's scheduled to come here in a few weeks.  Maybe we'll take you to see him," Duo added.  He was still trying to nudge her in the direction of her bed.  She wasn't cooperating.

Just as Duo had given up trying to get her to move, Jinx started walking back to the bed.  He helped her sit down on it, and then swing her legs over on the bed.  She lied down with a heavy sigh.  She hurt so much inside.

Heero walked closer and put a hand on her head.  "You need to rest.  There is too much damage to your body.  Your inner tissues and organs are burned from the electricity."

"I know," she whispered.  She closed her eyes to concentrate on healing herself.

She felt concern from the two boys radiating over her.  She fell into a deep state of meditation, under Heero's watchful eyes.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Duo walked into the room where Jinx was laying.  It's been three days.  And Heero hasn't moved.  Or slept.  The boy was relentless.  He just sat there in a dark corner, watching Jinx as she remained motionless in the bed.

He handed Heero the plate of food and sat down next to him.  "Any changes?"  He knew the answer, but Duo asked anyway.

Heero shook his head no as he started to eat.  

"Wonder what she's doing…" Duo thought out loud.

"Meditating."

"Meditating?"

Heero swallowed and started to explain, "She has some psychic abilities.  She can focus her concentration onto the microscopic particles of her own cells and will them to heal.  It is time and energy consuming, but she's done it before.  That is how she survived the plague."

"How do you know all this?"

"I remember Dr. J mentioning something about it when I was younger.  After hearing about the success OZ was having on a girl named Jinx in the L3 colony cluster, he tried to develop my own psychic abilities, but I wasn't capable of that high a level of mental training.  He abandoned it and concentrated on my combat skills after that."

Duo shifted in his chair.  "Wow.  That's weird."

"What's weird?"

"How we all end up connecting with each other.  Who would have thought that this girl from you and Trowa's past would actually be right here in front of you some day?"  Duo rubbed his left arm.  The shrapnel wound was healing nicely, and leaving nothing but a scar behind.

"It's not that great," Heero said irritably, thrusting the empty plate into Duo's stomach.  Duo was confused.  "It was bad enough with only one Perfect Soldier around," Heero explained.  "Now there will be two of us."

Duo rubbed his stomach.  "Hey, buddy, don't be so hard on yourself.  You're not the same as you used to be, and you know it.  Sure, you still do the whole sneaking behind people thing and popping bones back into place, but you have a heart now."  Duo got up.  "If you didn't, then you wouldn't be staking out her bed waiting for her to wake up."  He left Heero to continue watching over Jinx. 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

_Ow_, Jinx thought as she started waking up from her long meditation.  Her whole body ached, and she couldn't find the strength to open her eyes just yet.

_Need some water?_ Heero's voice asked her.  She heard him get up and walk closer, but she didn't make the connection that he wasn't speaking out loud to her.

_Water would be great._  She replied, her eyes still closed.  She felt Heero's strong hand slide under her neck to help hold her up.  A cool liquid brushed against her lips and she drank the tonic.  It warmed her body and gave her much-needed energy.

_Thanks_.

"No problem," Heero replied, stepping back away from her after setting her gently back down onto her pillow.  He wondered why she still hadn't opened her eyes.  

_I think it's too bright out there.  It would hurt to open my eyes right now._  Her thoughts entered his head, answering his unasked question.  

This was too weird.  

_What's weird?_ she asked.  

_The fact that I've only said two words out loud since you woke up._

Jinx's eyes popped open, and she sat up suddenly in bed.  "What do you mean?"

Heero sat down on his chair, now permanently imprinted with the shape of his butt.  "Sorry, but I had to test and see if Duo was right.  He said that you could hear his thoughts.  I had to find out for myself."

"But how do you hear me?" she asked.  In all her experience, no one had ever been able to hear her back, no matter how her mind screamed out to them.

"I don't know.  Perhaps because I've had a little bit of mental training myself."  Heero watched her as she pulled herself up into a more comfortable sitting position.  Her bangs were wet, and they stuck to her forehead.  Her red colored eyes held his complete attention.

_What?_ she asked, irritated. 

_Sorry,_ he apologized again, averting his eyes from her to the window.  

Jinx looked down at herself.  She was soaking with sweat, the only evidence of the intense labors to heal herself.  Her hair was still in her fake Duo braid.  Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, she was thankful she'd taken the time to heal her broken arm and ribs.  Lightly, she dropped to the floor.  Damn, she had forgotten about the shrapnel wounds in her leg.  She watched the ground rush up to meet her as she fell.

But she never touched it.  Heero's expert reaction time kept her from hitting the ground.  He held her nimbly in his strong arms, his face close above hers.  He blushed, ever so slightly.

Jinx squirmed her way out of his arms, standing up gingerly next to the bed.  "I feel gross," she told him.  "I need to take a bath."

Heero held her upper arm firmly to steady her.  He led her to a room down the hall, and filled a tub with warm water.  She could hardly stand without leaning on him.  And he was amused by the fact that he didn't seem to mind.  Jinx kept her eyes closed and didn't say anything, with her mind or her mouth, while he prepared her bath.

She heard him say something about getting some food ready for her, and he'd check back with her shortly before he gently closed the door behind him and left her to bathe.  Too bad, she thought.  He was so nice.

Jinx eased herself into the warm bath water.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Duo woke up with the sun that morning, for the first time in his life.  He heard someone taking a bath next door, and supposed it to be Jinx or Heero.  Stumbling down the stairs in his sleep clothes, he saw Heero attempting to cook something.  How cute, he thought.  Heero got defensive when Duo brought it up, but he knew that Heero liked the new girl.

Instead of bothering Heero this early in the morning, he headed back upstairs to check on Jinx himself.  He knocked lightly on the door, listening for a voice or sound of splashing inside.  

No answer.

He knocked louder, calling Jinx's name.

Still no answer.

"Come on, Jinx," he yelled.  "I'm going to come in there if you don't say something.  And believe me, I'm not bluffing…"

No answer.

"Alright, here I come.  You better grab a towel while you can," he warned, turning the doorknob.  

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Over the noise of his cooking, Heero heard Duo screaming for help.


	4. Midnight Message

DISCLAIMER – I do not own Gundam Wing.

Chapter Four

Heero catapulted himself up the long stairway in three long strides, rushing to find Duo.  The bathroom door was open, and Heero saw Duo on the floor kneeling next to a very wet, very naked, and very not breathing Jinx.  

"Heero help!" his friend screamed at him as soon as he saw Heero fling himself around the corner of the doorway and into the bathroom.

Heero pushed Duo out of the way and knelt next to Jinx's face, putting his ear near her mouth to see if she was breathing.  Damn, she wasn't.  Duo put a towel over her body as Heero pinched her nose and lifted her chin.  He put his open mouth over hers and forced air into her lungs.  

Duo counted the number of times Heero blew into her mouth.  Two, three, four.  He saw Heero pause, put his ear near her mouth again, and check if she was still breathing.  

Heero sighed with relief and sat back.  She was breathing on her own…barely, but she was breathing.  "What happened?" he asked Duo.

"I woke up and went downstairs to see where everyone was.  I figured Jinx was in the bath cause I could hear her, and so I knocked on the door.  She didn't answer, so I called out to her and knocked louder.  But she still didn't answer, so I said if she didn't answer I was going to come in if she was ready or not."  Duo paused to look at the girl on the floor, who was breathing steadily now.  "When I came in, she was under the water.  So I screamed for you to come and pulled her out onto the floor."

"Hm." Heero answered.  "That's why it was so easy to revive her.  She hadn't dead for very long."  He brushed the black bangs out of her face.  Her hair was apparently black, now that the dye they used to change her hair color was diffused in the water.  

_Bastard,_ he heard her say.  _It's you I taste on my lips_.  

"That's right," Heero said out loud. 

Duo looked at his friend, confused.

_Why couldn't you have let me die?_ she asked.  

"Why do you want to die?" he asked back.

Duo was now thoroughly confused.  "Hey, look, man.  If you want to talk to a sleeping woman, by all means, go for it.  I'm going downstairs to get some breakfast."  Duo walked away, shaking his head at Heero's weirdness.  

_I failed,_ she stated simply.

_Because you didn't die in Duo's place?  I think it's a success because both of you are alive and well.  Much happier ending that way.  Besides, you could do a lot of good working with us_, he said back to her, with a little bit of a joking tone of voice.  Heero needed to be as cheerful as he possibly could be in order to convince her to keep from trying to commit suicide again.  

He heard her sigh as she opened her eyes.  He'd won.  He saw the defeated look in her shining red eyes and knew that she'd given up trying to kill herself, for now.  "Hey," he said, taking on a few of Duo's characteristics as he smiled at her, "if I was successful all the times I've tried to commit suicide, I'd be dead five times by now."  

She cracked a smile.  "I'm cold," she told him.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Quatre called them all to dinner, and the two ex-Gundam pilots and came in, wiping the grease from their hands.  They'd been outside, working on that god-forsaken attempt of a shuttle ever since they'd saved Jinx that morning.  She came in soon after them.  She had been out there with them, watching as they scraped knuckles and swore over the hunk of junk that they were working on.  Though Quatre had insisted Heero go to town to get her some more decent clothing, she was content to wear Heero's jeans and Duo's t-shirt.    

As they ate, Quatre was glad that she seemed more at ease now, though she often seemed deep in concentration when he glanced over at her.  Hearing of her attempt to kill herself that morning had him worried, but somehow Heero had gotten through to her.  She was still as silent as Heero or Trowa, but had a warmer look in her eyes.  Perhaps she had decided to find her place in life with them, he mused.

The light sounds of clinking forks against china dominated the dinner conversation.  Duo was so hungry from working hard that he only opened his mouth to shove more food in it, rather than talk like he normally did.  Heero was impassive and eating as normal, and so was Jinx for that matter.  Quatre enjoyed the quiet dinner.

"Shut up, Heero!" Jinx screamed at him from across the table as she stood up, knocking her chair over.  

Duo paused, a fork full of food halfway between his plate and his mouth.  Quatre gasped in surprise.

"I've been answering your questions all day!  Where did I train?  Who did I work for during the Gundam Wars?  How long did I work with OZ?" Jinx mimicked Heero's questions, still yelling at him.  "I just want some rest now, you're wearing me out with your constant blabbering."  She took a roll with her and stalked up the stairs.  

Duo and Quatre both slowly turned and looked at Heero.  He had a guilty look on his face, and tried to give a little innocent smile.  It didn't quite work the way he had planned.

"Were you bothering her?" Quatre accusingly asked. 

Heero looked like a kid with his hand in a cookie jar.  "I was just asking her what she remembered about her parents.  It was an innocent little question," he tried to explain.

"But she said you'd been talking all day," Duo insisted.  "Can you communicate with her mentally?"

Quatre stared with his mouth open.  Mental communication?

"Yea," Heero admitted.  "She's getting better at controlling it.  She says that she doesn't hear other voices all the time anymore, only mine.  And it's easier to talk that way, for me."

"Wow," Duo said, mockingly.  "Mr. Hm actually feels comfortable having a conversation with someone?  And she's a girl, of all people.  I think you like her, Heero."

"Shut up, Duo."  Heero glared at him and got up from the table, leaving a smirking Duo and confused Quatre behind.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Heero lay on the living room couch, glaring at the cheery starlight coming in through the window.  Jinx had locked herself in his room after dinner and no one was able to get in to see her, no matter how Duo pounded on the door.  At least she screamed at him to leave her alone – they knew that she wasn't dead in there.  Quatre and Duo hadn't spoken to Heero much for the rest of the night, as they finished dinner and sat around before heading to bed.  They thought that all of this was his fault.  And the longer Heero thought about it, the more he was sure they were right.  

He sighed and got off the couch.  His bare feet made soft padding sounds on the hardwood floor as he walked closer to the window.  Crossing his arms, he leaned his left side up against it, feeling the refreshing cool class against his shirtless shoulder and arm.  It helped to calm him down a little.  

A noise from the stairs across the room caught his attention.  He saw a pair of copper-toned legs as Jinx descended the stairs.  She didn't notice him at the window, and she headed straight for the kitchen.  Heero figured she must still be hungry from using all her energy during meditation.  

She crept quietly and didn't turn on any lights, so as no to disturb any of the sleeping boys in the house.  Jinx didn't notice Heero in the window, watching her as she ate some tantalizing leftovers from dinner that evening.

Heero took in the sight of her.  She was beautiful.  So was Relena, he remembered, but Jinx was beautiful in a completely different way.  Jinx had tan skin and black, heavy hair.  Wearing Heero's own boxers and tank top, he could see her lean muscles as she moved gracefully around the kitchen.  Relena was fair and delicate.  Jinx radiated quiet strength and reserved power.  He found the sight of her intoxicating.

Jinx was about to go back upstairs, leaving her midnight rendezvous in the kitchen, when she felt something tugging on the back of her mind.  It was Heero.

She stopped, with one hand on the banister, and looked around the large room.  There he was, leaning against the window and wearing nothing but his dirty jeans.  She took her foot off the stair and walked over to him, wanting to apologize for earlier.  Unsuccessfully, Jinx tried not to pay too much attention to his defined muscular torso and the way his bangs hung into his eyes giving him an alluring quality.  

Jinx stood about a foot in front of him, staring down at the floor between two pair of bare feet.  She decided to get this over with.  "I'm sorry Hee…"

_I'm sorry, Jinx_, his voice entered her mind, cutting her off.  

This time, she didn't mind.  _Sorry about what?_

_Bothering you today_, he answered simply.  _I'm just not used to being so comfortable with someone.  _Oops, he thought to himself, that was blunt.  _I guess I got a little carried away._  

He was staring down at her, making her vulnerable, as if he could see right through her.  Jinx wrapped her arms around herself and finally got the courage to look up at him, for only a moment.  _I'm sorry too,_ she thought to him.  _I should have been more understanding.  You were just curious, and I should have been more sensitive to you._  She looked past his shoulder out into the gardens.  _I'm just not used to talking with someone so much, with being so close to someone_, Jinx explained.

_Neither am I_, Heero admitted.  _I think that is why I bombarded you like I did_.  A success!, he thought.  She had smiled at the term 'bombard'.  

Jinx felt uncertainty from him.  It sure was easy for the two of them to 'talk'.  They didn't have to worry about finding the right words, or whether or not they got the correct meaning across.  Telepathic communication eliminated those problems, which gave the two of them a more intimate connection.  And now that they were getting better at it, they could communicate what they wanted to, and keep thoughts secret when they wanted to, too.  She wondered what the uncertainty was for, as she still looked out of the window past his shoulder.

Heero's chest blocked her view.  He had moved to be in front of her, and had taken a half step closer as well.  Jinx's heart started beating harder in her ribcage.  She was certain he could hear it.  Heero ran a finger along her jaw line, and lifted her chin so look into her eyes.  

They could both feel each other's nervousness, fear, and anticipation.  This whole emotion thing was kind of new to them both.  Sure, Heero felt deeply for Duo and the other pilots, just as Jinx was fond of Sally, Noin, and the other Preventors; but this was the first time either of them had admitted to feeling anything close to 'love'.  It scared them both, especially since it had come so suddenly.  

_We're connected_, Heero told her, putting his arms around her shoulders in an embrace.  To his relief, he felt her arms tighten around his waist, completing the hug.  

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Jinx lay in Heero's bed, staring up at his ceiling and trying to suppress the feeling of exhilaration that still brewed within her.  He had insisted that she remain in his room, and he would take the couch for as long as she stayed with them.  She tried to object, but he wouldn't take no for an answer.  Heero had walked her upstairs to say goodnight.  Her lips still tingled from when he gave her a light kiss at the doorway before going back downstairs.  

This was all so new to her, as she was sure it was new to Heero too.  They were two soldiers, trained to detach themselves from weakening emotions and humanity.  But now that war was over, the two had found each other.  And Jinx knew in that instant downstairs, she wanted to discover that world of lost emotions with Heero.

She rolled over in his bed, gathering the sheets around her shoulders and breathing in his scent, before softly falling asleep.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Heero was laying flat on his back on the floor, using his folded arms behind his head as a pillow, when the laptop he'd set on the coffee table beeped.  He frowned as he sat up, watching the text scroll across the screen.

He paused for a moment considering his options.  Then he used one hand to type his answer to Relena Peacecraft.  

"Mission Accepted," he muttered under his breath as he sent the message.


	5. Arctic Mission

DISCLAIMER – I do not own Gundam Wing.

Chapter Five

Quatre winced as the bowl clattered against the countertop.  He was attempting a little more stealth so as not to wake the entire household up with his making breakfast.  Heero had been asleep on the couch that morning, so he surely heard Quatre's clumsiness.  Right on cue, Heero walked into the kitchen, but he wasn't exactly as Quatre had imagined.

Heero was fully dressed in clean jeans and a red t-shirt, and he even had his shoes on, which was a rare occurrence when Heero planned to stay in the house all day.  Obviously, Heero did not plan on staying in the house today.  

He sat at the kitchen table and accepted the mug of coffee Quatre handed him.  

"Is anyone else awake?" Quatre asked, attempting to make small talk.  He poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down, waiting for his first batch of pancakes to finish.  

"I hope not," Heero answered.  "I was planning on leaving without Duo knowing.  He'd throw a fit otherwise."

This strange answer had Quatre completely confused.  Where could Heero be going that Duo would be mad at him for leaving?  "Where are you going?"

"A mission."  Heero wasn't planning on saying more than that.

"A mission where?"

Heero took a sip of his coffee.  He preferred it black.  Quatre knew that Duo liked two packets of sweetener and creamer in his coffee.  The packages were already on the counter by an empty mug awaiting Duo's appearance, courtesy of the impeccable host named Quatre Reberba Winner.  

Obviously, Quatre thought, Heero wasn't planning on giving any details.  That only meant one thing.  

"It's a mission from Relena, isn't it?" Quatre asked.  

Heero gave a quick nod of his head and stared straight into the black liquid in the mug.  He didn't feel like talking about Relena with Quatre.  Especially not after…

"You know, Heero?" Quatre started while getting up to check the progress of his pancakes.  Heero looked up from his mug.  "We never did talk about Relena."

"What's to talk about?"

Quatre flipped each pancake over expertly.  "I never said I was sorry."

"Sorry for what?"

Quatre turned around to glare at Heero.  "You know full well what!"

Heero set his mug down, concentrating on the correct choice of words to use.  "There is nothing to apologize about.  She was fair game."

"But I still feel bad about it.  Like I betrayed you," Quatre confessed.

Heero's heart softened a little at the sound of his friend's voice.  All this time he'd blamed only Relena, not ever thinking of how Quatre felt.  And how Quatre felt as used as he did.  "I guess she abandoned us both," Heero admitted.

"Yea, I feel like that, too.  But I knew that you loved her Heero, and I slept with her anyway.  It was the wrong thing to do," Quatre started apologizing again.

"Don't say you're sorry again," Heero cut in.  "I had no right to be possessive of her.  How can it be classified as betrayal?  I never even told her how much I loved her.  But, I've moved on now.  I don't need a girl messing things up for me anymore."  That was the way Heero had reasoned it out in his mind.  Now that he spoke it out loud, it didn't seem as convincing.  

"I know that you and I never talked about it because neither of us wanted to hurt the other," Quatre continued, "and things are settled between us?"

Heero nodded in affirmation. 

"But we need to talk about Relena.  And we need to talk about her now.  You've been avoiding her for two years, Heero.  Now that you have to face her again, what will happen?"

He thought deeply about what Quatre was telling him.  His friend was right.  No matter how mad he may be at Relena, he had to decide what he truly felt about her.  Heero looked back at Quatre, but his friend was looking past him to the hallway.

Quatre's attention was drawn to something behind Heero and behind the kitchen doorway.  He thought he saw a flip of braid, as if someone had turned around quickly and he'd only seen the wake of their hair.  

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Jinx tried to blink back the tears.  Heero loved Relena?  How could she be so stupid?  Of course Heero loved the girl that he'd saved over and over again.  Why else would he save her ass all the time?  

Even Quatre knew about it, she thought.  He's the one talking to Heero about her.  Jinx was the only one who didn't know that Heero already loved someone else.  

She ran away from the doorway to the kitchen.  Jinx had almost gone in there, lured by the smell of something Quatre was making and the knowledge that Heero was sitting at the table.  But the conversation she overheard on her way down the hall caused her to approach with more caution.  Now she wished she hadn't been so gullible last night, or so careful this morning as to overhear the conversation.  

Through her attempts to keep from sobbing, Jinx was actually pleasantly surprised at herself for making it up the long staircase without tripping on her own feet.  Just as she was enjoying this little spurt of pride, she fell.

"Ouch," Duo complained, untangling himself from Jinx.  "Are you OK?"  He got up and offered a hand to help her up.  

She didn't look up at him, but kept her hands over her face and remained sitting on the floor at the top of the stairs where she'd fallen after running into Duo.  

Duo wondered what to do for a moment, but only for a moment.  Obviously, she was upset about something, and Duo had a hunch that Heero was most likely behind it all.  Duo sat down next to her, putting his hands on her shoulders.  

"Come on," he pleaded, "let me take you back to your room."  Carefully, he helped her get up and led her back to Heero's room.  

She didn't look at him the entire time.  She sat on the bed and kept her face in her hands, too embarrassed to look at Duo and apologize for running into him or thank him for helping her up.

Duo was getting really worried now.  The silent treatment was the worst in his opinion.  He tried to think of all the things he could do to cheer her up enough to talk to her about whatever problem she had.  He tried to think back to that time Heero had consoled him…

Hilde had broken up with him last year.  Duo was a mess.  He remembered not leaving his bed (because it still smelled like her, a little) for three days.  Finally, Heero had enough of his moping and grabbed him by a leg and pulled him out of the bed and across the floor.  

That was a little extreme.  He wasn't going to do that to Jinx.  

Then Heero had thrown him into a cold bath, with his clothes still on.  Duo had cursed at Heero for doing it, but he knew deep down that he needed to clean himself and wash the hair.

Duo didn't need to give Jinx a bath.  He'd given her one yesterday.  After the "I'm going to drown myself" fiasco, they decided that someone had to stay with her during her bath.  Quatre couldn't even say the word breast without blushing, so he'd declined helping right from the start.  Heero mumbled something under his breath about 'not being right' and left the room, so Duo had been chosen for the task.  He was the only one of the three Gundam pilots who was comfortable with the idea of helping a friend bathe.  This friend only happened to have a female's anatomy.  

After Heero had tossed his ass in cold water, he'd dragged Duo out again and roughly put some clothes on him.  Then Heero did the most surprising thing of all.  He'd combed Duo's hair.  It still amazes Duo.  Heero actually showed a little nurturing care by brushing out Duo's hair and re-braiding it.  People with short hair just don't know how relaxing it is to have someone bush their hair.

That's it!  Duo decided to help calm her down by brushing her hair.  Maybe he could even style it in a different way so that they didn't look like twins so much anymore.  

He handed her a couple of hair ties to warn her that he was about to get on the bed.  "Here," Duo said as he sat on the bed behind Jinx.  Carefully he unbraided her hair and started bushing it gently.

Jinx reveled in the pleasant feeling.  People with short hair just don't know how calming it is to have someone brush their hair, she thought.  She leaned her head back, making it easier for Duo to reach.  

Duo smiled.  Her reactions told him that she was actually enjoying this.  He was glad to help make her feel better.  Nothing better than cheering up a friend, he thought.  To get more comfortable, he scooted closer to her and put a leg on either side of her body, thinking nothing of the semi-suggestive position.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

If he could, Heero would bore holes into the back of Duo's head with his eyes.  He watched as Duo ran his hands through Jinx's hair.  He watched as she let him run his hands through her hair.  He watched as Duo again tried to get more comfortable.  This time, Duo bent his knees and put his feet in her lap, effectively wrapping his legs loosly around her waist.  

This was too much, he decided.  

Heero had come upstairs to check on her, after Quatre said he thought he saw her in the hallway during their conversation.  He wanted to explain that he didn't love Relena anymore.  He wanted to say that she hurt him too badly by having sex with one of his best friends.  And he didn't want to be with Relena, who would use a friend to get back at him just because he was too uncertain to tell her he loved her.  

But he was too late.  Duo had already been there, and he was the one to comfort her when she needed it.  

Defeated, Heero slinked away from his own open door and left them alone.  

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

By the time Duo had finished his masterpiece with Jinx's black hair, Heero had already gone out to work on the shuttle again.  Quatre was alone in the kitchen, still making some pancakes.  Apparently, Heero had been hungry that morning and eaten everything that Quatre had intended for the four of them.

Jinx smiled slightly as Quatre handed her a mug of coffee, black.   Duo was already sipping his own sweet version of brew.  

"So what's going on with Heero?" Duo asked Quatre.  "I haven't seen him this morning yet."

Quatre looked uncomfortable for a moment, unsure of whether or not to tell Duo.  Heero hadn't wanted him to say anything, but him going off alone on this type of mission was a good way to get himself into trouble, Quatre thought.  It'd be safer for Duo to be along with him.  

"Relena informed him of an enemy supply base on the Siberian continent.  He was going to leave for it as soon as he got that shuttle working."

"Alone?" Duo asked, sitting up straight in his chair.  "Heero knows better than to do something like that alone.  It's a good way to get himself killed, especially if the base is well defended." 

"He knows that," Quatre admitted.  "Actually, Relena had sent the mission for all of us, but I have a meeting this evening and Wufei is on assignment until this afternoon.  Trowa is already on his way here, but it will take him a few hours to get here from L2."

Duo rolled his eyes at Heero's predictability.  "So Heero thought he'd go ahead without us, take care of the base, then meet us at Relena's tomorrow after we can all make it to Earth."

"That's pretty much it," Quatre confirmed.  "He was planning to just go to her palace after he destroyed the base.  We'd meet him there tomorrow morning."

Duo stood up, pushing his chair over.  "Well we aren't going to let him do it.  Heero's going to go off and get himself killed.  We don't know what kind of defense that base has.  And he doesn't either."  He glanced out the back window, watching Heero make some final touches on their piece of junk shuttle.  Duo was definitely going too.  But what about Jinx?

He looked down where she was still sitting at the table, watching him get angry at Heero's stubbornness.  Heero had obviously done something wrong to make her upset, he thought.  And he wasn't going to sit around and let his friends fight with each other.  He was going to get them together if it was the last thing he did.  "Come on," he said to her, grabbing her hand and dragging her out the backdoor of the mansion.  

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Heero looked up from his final systems check when he heard the backdoor slam.  Duo was clasping Jinx's hand and leading her to the shuttle.  Heero's eyes darkened when he saw the handholding.  Duo had two suits in his free hand.

"No way!" Heero yelled out to him.  "You're not coming."

"Yes we are, Heero!" Duo yelled right back, matching the sternness of Heero's voice.  Heero knew that Duo meant business.  

Duo didn't get angry often, but when he did, it was best if Heero just went along with whatever Duo wanted.  He didn't object anymore when Duo boarded the shuttle, with a confused Jinx in tow.

Heero couldn't help but notice her.  Of course, she was still wearing his jeans and Duo's navy t-shirt, but Duo had done her hair in a very intricate manner.  It was braided, and then wrapped around her head like a crown, exposing her neck.  She was beautiful this morning.  Even if she'd rather be with Duo, he didn't mind having her along for the mission.  

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

No one spoke to each other.  

It had been the worst trip to Earth Jinx had ever experienced.  Duo and Heero were angry with each other, and sat side-by-side in the pilot and copilot seats with their arms crossed in defiance.  Neither one of them talked to her, or even acknowledged that she was alive back there in the navigator's station.  They really didn't need a navigator, that's just where she happened to be tossed by Duo.  And she was too afraid of their best-friend-fight to object to where he sat her.  

Now that they were at their target location, a mile away from the landing site on a bluff overlooking the base that was nestled in an icy valley, Duo and Heero still weren't talking to each other or her.  They all had on their spacesuits, well she had on an extra one of Duo's, to protect them from the blistering cold.  Nothing like the northern hemisphere Siberian continent to cool you off.  

Heero was laying flat, watching the base through binoculars.  Duo was doing the same.  Jinx was just watching them.  They were so productive when they were fighting, she thought to herself sarcastically.  

Heero glanced back at her.  She knew he hadn't heard what she thought, but he definitely felt the sting of her frustration.  It didn't seem to faze him too much.

"I count eighteen on perimeter guard.  Two patrolling the north fence, three each on the west and east fence, and four on the south fence with two in the guardhouse," Heero informed in his impersonal military voice.

"That leaves four in the guard tower?" Duo asked for confirmation. 

"Affirmative."

"No problem," Jinx spoke up from behind them.

"Huh?" Duo asked, turning around to face her.  

"I can take out the four in the tower, two in the guardhouse, and at least three of the men on the south fence before an alarm is sounded," she explained.

"So could I," Heero mumbled under his breath. 

"But could you do it from here?" she asked, a little bit of challenge creeping into her voice.

"From here?" Heero repeated.

Jinx nodded.

Duo smiled.  "Now _this_ I've got to see."

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Jinx waited on the icy cliff, watching for Heero's signal from the north fence.  She could already see Duo in position near the west fence, closest to the artillery storage.  He'd have a chance to sneak in and set up the explosives while she and Heero kept the guards distracted.  

Movement caught her eye.  Heero's light blue spacesuit did a good job of blending into the immense expanses of ice, but she could see him move closer to the guard at the corner of the north and east fences.  She leaned down to her sniper rifle, focusing on a man in the guard tower through her sights.  Her target was to the right of the second button of his uniform.  She knew his heart was directly under there.  Reaching forward to the muzzle of the gun, she screwed on the silencer.  

Four quick shots seemed loud in her ears, but she knew that no one over a few feet away could have heard them.  The four men in the tower slumped over, one after the other.  Each was shot cleanly through the heart.  

Quickly, she reached forward and unscrewed the silencer as she focused on her new targets.  The soldiers in the guardhouse.  The sound of these shots were the signals for Heero and Duo to move in.  

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Heero watched as the four men in the guard tower suddenly dropped to the ground, dead.  Jinx was a good shot, he thought to himself.  Soon he'd hear the sound of her fifth shot aimed at the guardhouse.  

He focused on the man attempting to light a cigarette in the freezing cold winds.  His gun was tucked into the back of his belt.  He was planning on using a little bit of stealth at first.  Perhaps a breaking of his neck would be sufficient.  After this soldier was taken care of, he'd use his gun to push his way further into the compound, distracting the remaining guards from Duo's work at the far end of the base.

A shot rang through the air, followed closely by a second and third.  Jinx had started firing at the men on the south fence.  

Heero leapt at the man with the cigarette.  Pity, he thought.  Smoking kills.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Jinx's shots took Duo a little by surprise, though he was fully expecting to hear them, unlike the unlucky fellows who manned this base.  He'd seen the guards in the tower disappear beneath the railing.  Duo had tensed, waiting to hear his signal.

He wanted to jump out with each ringing shot.  But he had to wait.  Let the men be drawn to the south and east fences, away from him.  Duo heard answering gunfire, but he couldn't imagine what they were shooting at.  Jinx was too far away for them to ever find her.  He heard Heero's gun, and decided to make his move.

Duo covered the distance to the fence in no time.  Utilizing a little bit of gymnastics that Trowa had taught him, Duo was able to get over the fence without ripping his spacesuit or the bag of explosives he carried.  

He bypassed the light armored vehicles and small artillery pieces.  He knew the big stuff was in the hangar a few feet away.  Making his way through the yard, he entered the hangar.  

Mobile suits were stacked up against the walls of the aluminum building.  Large missiles and storage units for torpedoes were gathered in the middle between the suits.  These guys were idiots, he thought, leaving all this stuff so close together.  

Duo worked as fast as he could.  More men were appearing from the bunkhouse to assist in fending off the attackers.  Little did they know that only two people were really attacking them.  Finally, he set the last device on an impressively large container of suit-fuel.  

He turned and ran from the base, clearing the fence and heading back to a safe area.  

Duo dove behind a large chunk of ice, bringing out his radio.  He knew that the men on the base were probably monitoring radio frequencies, but he had to check in with Jinx.

"Mimic, do you copy?" he asked with proper military protocol.

"Copy, Death," the answer came immediately.

"Has the Decoy Target cleared?"  Duo tried not to laugh at his name for Heero.  They'd decided on it after Heero had already left to get into position, so Heero couldn't object.  

"Affirmative.  Commence with operation."

Good, that meant that Heero was already far enough away from the base that he wouldn't be in the range of the blast.  Duo held the detonator in his hand.  "Roger that."  

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

From her vantage point at the top of the cliff, Jinx could see as the base exploded into bright and brilliant flames of red, orange and yellow.  Dark clouds of smoke billowed up toward the afternoon sky.  

Sighing, she rolled away from the sniper rifle and lay on her back to wait for Heero and Duo to return.

Mission accomplished, she thought.  


	6. Colder than Ice

DISCLAIMER – I do not own Gundam Wing.

Chapter Six

For the fifth time in the last thirty minutes, Duo beat the control panel while screaming insulting remarks about the shuttle's mother.  After this fit of rage passed, he slid into the pilot seat, giving up.

"Well, man," he said to Heero, "looks like we're stuck here."

The mission had been a success.  The base was destroyed.  The threat of missiles aimed at the homes of the executive counsel members' homes was neutralized.  Heero and Duo had made it back to Jinx alive.  All three of them found their way back to the shuttle.  Complete success.  Except the shuttle's ignition system had been damaged either by the entry into the Earth's atmosphere or the extreme cold of the Siberian continent.  

Freezing to death here was not an enticing option.  

"Maybe we should look for shelter," Duo suggested.

"It's better if we stay here," Heero objected.  "Relena will report us missing.  Trowa, Wufei, and Quatre will come looking for us in the morning.  We need to be near the shuttle because that is what is easiest for them to find out here in the middle of nowhere."  He involuntarily shivered.  

Jinx hugged herself for warmth.  "We just need to stay alive till then," she said through chattering teeth.

Duo forgot about his anger at the shuttle long enough to worry about her.  She looked awfully pale, he thought.  And she still wasn't fully recovered from the electric shock.  Of all of them, Jinx was the one in the most danger of hypothermia.  

He got up and walked over to her, giving her a quick hug.  Duo tried to warm her by rubbing her arms briskly.  Hopefully, friction would do the trick.

Heero tried not to be jealous.  He remained in the copilot chair and glanced at the chronometer.  Only 16:14.  They had another two hours before Relena would notice they hadn't arrived.  Another two hours after that, they'd be considered officially missing.  And it probably wouldn't be until tomorrow morning that any of the other pilots would be able to rescue them.  He shook his head.  It wasn't even dark outside.  The temperature would drop to thirty below freezing once the sun went down.  It looked hopeless.

Warm comfort flooded his mind, startling him.  He looked over at Jinx.  Her crimson eyes were glowing as she tried to keep her eyes from watering, due to the chilly temperatures.  She must have felt his despair, and now she was trying to comfort him.  

He smiled at her.  Not very reassuring, but it was all he could come up with.  Heero couldn't help but be a little pleased.  Even though she was in Duo's arms, Jinx was genuinely worried about him.  

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Relena looked out the window, expecting Heero to arrive any minute.  She'd practiced what she'd say to him when he got off his shuttle.  She'd practiced what she'd say to him during dinner.  She'd practiced the words of her apology a thousand times.  She was making herself sick with anticipation.  Relena sighed.  She was looking forward to spending a night alone with Heero.

She looked down at the clock on the table.  20:29.  He was two and a half hours late.  Perhaps she should contact someone at the Preventors.

"Pagan," she called out.

"Yes, Miss Relena?" the trusty butler answered immediately.

"Please call Sally Po.  I need to speak to her."

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

20:36.  Heero shivered more violently.  It was only 20:36.  The sun had gone down over two hours ago, and the temperature had dropped tremendously.  They were in the shelter of the shuttle, protected from the harsh winds and deadly temperature outside.  But even a shuttle can't keep all the cold out.  Especially a shuttle with no power.

Duo and Jinx were huddled sitting next to each other on the floor.  

None of them were going to last too much longer.  And Jinx was looking worse by the minute.  Heero's heart ached.  Her lips held an unhealthy faint tint of blue.  It made Heero want to kiss her to warm them up.  

Duo tightened his grip around Jinx.  She was beginning to feel cold in his arms, which meant hypothermia was now a definite problem.  He had to think of something quick in order to keep her warm.

Body heat.

"Jinx," he whispered.  His voice sounded crackly in the cold air.  

"Hm?"

"I have an idea."  Duo's stiff body protested as he began moving.  He slowly peeled off his spacesuit, then took a pocketknife and cut it open.  It resembled a rough blanket when he was done.  Duo then helped Jinx out of her suit and cut it open like his.  

Jinx couldn't understand what Duo was doing.  But then again, she was painfully aware that the cold environment was affecting her ability to think and reason.  "What are you doing?" she asked Duo.

"Body heat is the only way we can keep warm.  But if we're wearing suits, we're not sharing each other's body heat as well as if we were closer, so I'm making the suits into blankets.  We'll get between the two of them and stay warm together," he explained.

Jinx nodded.  She still didn't understand why Duo was doing this.  The cold was really affecting her mind.  It hurt.

Duo put one blanket on the floor of the shuttle.  He sat down on it and pulled Jinx to him.  Then he covered them both with the other makeshift blanket.  Holding her close, he was able to finally feel some exchange of warmth.  

Resting against Duo, Jinx began to get tired.  She knew that people froze to death when they went to sleep, but she couldn't help it.  Her eyelids got heavier and heavier each time she blinked.  Duo noticed.

"Are you sleepy?" he asked.

She nodded.

"Here, let's lay down."  Duo shifted a little, easing Jinx down onto the blanket.  She immediately curled into a fetal position, her knees close to touching her forehead.  Lying beside her, Duo uncurled her a little and cupped his whole body around her back, trying to keep as much contact with her as possible to keep warm.  

Barely the tops of their heads emerged from under the blanket.  Heero's jealousy was keeping him warm as he glared at them from the copilot chair.  

Unexpectedly, a thought entered his mind.  _Come here_, Jinx said to him.

_Why?  I don't want to disturb you and Duo_, he snapped back at her.   

_Come here_, she pleaded again.  

Heero was about to make another angry comment, but stopped himself.  She was worried about him.  She was worried about all of them.  And he knew that if he laid down there with them, they might just have a chance to survive.  With Jinx in the middle, he and Duo might be able to save her.

Picking up Duo's discarded pocketknife, he cut his own suit after slowly getting out of it.  Gently, he placed his own blanket on top of the other one.  Heero hesitated.  

_Please, Heero.  I'm not going to be awake for much longer_.

That was the deciding factor.  Heero lifted up the edge of the blankets and slid in between them to lie next to Jinx.  He did not want to get too close.  He didn't want to disturb her.

_Come here_, she said more forcefully, wrapping an arm around his waist and pulling him with a surprising spurt of strength toward her.  

Heero tried not to think too much about the body of the girl pressed up close against his own.  He tried not to dwell on the entire front of her body against the back of his: her forehead resting on the back of his neck, her breath warm on his shoulder, her chest and stomach pressed to his back, the front of her legs against the back of his.  It was hard not to think about it.  Especially when her hand roamed to his waistline, slipped up under his shirt, and came to rest on his chest.  Heero shivered again, but this time, it wasn't because he was cold.

He felt Jinx smile, though he couldn't see her.  But her feelings were faint because she was loosing consciousness.  Before she drifted off to sleep, she and Heero exchanged nothing but emotions of contentment and happiness with each other.  Heero held her hand firmly against his heart.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Wufei rubbed his neck as he walked through the doorway to Quatre's mansion.  It had been a long afternoon.  Sally kept him more than busy because she knew he was leaving that night in order to fulfill a special mission for Relena the next day.  He was surprised to find the house empty.  He'd halfway expected Duo to run up and greet him, and he wondered where that strange girl was.  

He found Trowa in the kitchen, thoughtfully chewing some weird-looking vegetable.  

"What's going on?" he asked, reaching into the refrigerator for something to eat.  

"There's a slight problem," Trowa informed him.  Just like Trowa to use the least amount of words possible when he talks.

"Problem with what?" Wufei asked, turning to face him.

Trowa pulled out a communicator and switched on the screen.  He pressed play, showing a message that he'd received after arriving at Quatre's earlier that evening.  

Sally's face appeared, and she addressed the Gundam pilots.  "This message is sent for Trowa Barton, Wufei Chang, Duo Maxwell, and Quatre Reberba Winner.  It is now 20:32.  I have just received word from Relena Peacecraft that Heero Yuy has not arrived at her estate.  He was to report directly to President Peacecraft immediately following his orders to destroy an artillery base in the Siberian continent at 18:00.  This makes him approximately two and a half hours late.  We have received satellite confirmation that the base was indeed destroyed.  Heero Yuy's whereabouts are completely unknown…"  On the recording, Sally closed her eyes for a moment to gain composure.  Her voice softened a little from her military tone to the tone of a friend.  "I know this comes as bad news, and this late in the day means that you will have to postpone a rescue mission.  I only hope that you will be able to find our dear friend first thing in the morning.  Feel free to include Jinx in your search.  She is a fine soldier.  Please report to me post-mission, tomorrow."  Sally nodded her head and the recording clicked off.  

Wufei stared at the blank screen.  His face darkened with rage.  "That stupid woman," he muttered through clenched teeth.  

Trowa looked at him with a cocked eyebrow.

"Not Sally," Wufei answered.  "Relena.  If that woman had told us the moment Heero was overdue, then we could have left to find him.  Its too late now, the colonies won't allow any liftoffs until tomorrow at 06:00."  Wufei threw himself into a chair.  They'd have to just wait then.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Quatre came home soon after.  Trowa showed him the recording too.  

"Oh no," the quiet boy uttered.  "That means that…"

"Means what?" Wufei asked, searching for more information.  

"It means that Duo and Jinx are missing too.  They went with him."  Quatre spoke quietly, already mourning his friends.

"What!?" Wufei exploded.  "You mean that Heero isn't the only one that's missing!"

Quatre nodded.  "They decided to all go at the last minute.  No one else knew."

Trowa handed him a warm drink, and settled in for the long wait until tomorrow.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Wufei and Quatre scanned the sheets of ice below them, searching for the signs of Heero's shuttle as Trowa maneuvered their own shuttle against the harsh winds.  Trowa had headphones on, listening to the beeping of different radio frequencies as he flew.  He'd have to come across something similar to Duo soon enough.  Ah-ha good boy, Duo, he thought as he locked in on a certain frequency.  Giving the shuttle the same frequency we'd used for the Gundams was a stroke of genius.  

Trowa slowly adjusted the pitch of his craft, heading in the direction of Deathscythe's frequency.  

They all saw the shuttle at the same time.  It was mostly covered in ice and snow due to the strong winds and storm last night.  No footprints were seen around the vehicle.  Wufei scanned the heat sensor monitor.  There wasn't anything promising on it.  It wasn't picking up any heat sources inside the shuttle.  

Quatre feared the worst.  But maybe, he thought, they'd sought shelter elsewhere.  There had to be a clue as to which way they headed inside the shuttle.  

All the pilots came to that same conclusion.  

Trowa landed expertly and very closely to the abandoned shuttle.  They braced themselves against the cold and headed through the hatch.

Wufei brought a crowbar with him.  Good thing, he thought, since the door of the other shuttle was frozen shut.  He wedged the end between the door and the side and pushed.  Slowly, the hatch opened.  

Quatre rushed inside first, eager to find his friends.  What he found was a heap of torn spacesuits.  "Where'd they go?" he asked Trowa.

Wufei was busy by the instrument panel, looking for clues.

"Nowhere," Trowa answered.

"What?  You haven't said more that four words this whole time and now you open your mouth to say something weird like 'nowhere'?" Quatre chided.

Trowa walked closer to the pile of mangled suits.  He pulled the edge of one back, exposing someone's feet.  Quatre gasped, calling Wufei's attention.  They both watched as Trowa delicately removed the suits.

Duo was holding Jinx close to him, without a molecule of air between his stomach and her back.  Jinx was holding Heero close to her, melded completely with his shape.  Trowa leaned down closer to them, holding a hand over each mouth for a moment and then checking the next person.  Each one was breathing, barely.

"Get on the radio and see where the nearest medical station able to take three severe cases of hypothermia is.  We need to warm them up fast," Trowa ordered to Wufei, who took off running to their shuttle.  "Help me, Quatre," Trowa said to his friend.  

Trowa smiled to himself as he removed Jinx's hand from the inside of Heero's shirt.  No wonder Heero hadn't minded a girl tagging along, he thought.  Carefully, he lifted Heero in his arms and made his way to the other shuttle. 

Wufei had found a suitable medical center.  It was primitive and not much more than an outpost, but out here in the arctic, the only real medical facilities anyone needed were hydroheaters.  It didn't have anything else but a large-scale hydroheater, and that is what Trowa had asked for, specifically.  

Quatre carried Jinx into the shuttle, and Wufei ran to retrieve Duo.  

Soon, they were all on their way to the medical outpost.  


	7. Killing the Roses

DISCLAIMER – I do not own Gundam Wing.

Chapter Seven

Trowa held Heero up, to keep his unconscious body from slipping under the surface of the water in the pool.  He had a hold of Heero under his arms, with his hands clasped in front of Heero's chest.  The warm water of the pool was an uncomfortable 81oC.  Well, it was uncomfortable for him.  To Heero, Duo, and Jinx, the water probably felt like a blessing.  

Wufei had Duo and Quatre was holding Jinx in positions similar to the way Trowa was holding Heero.  The primitive hydroheater didn't have the normal harnesses used in more sophisticated medical centers, which meant the three healthy pilots had to strip down to boxers and get in the pool to hold their friends.  

He thought he felt Heero move.  Suddenly, Heero's hand came up and held Trowa's hands against his chest, taking Trowa by surprise.  Heero noticed the hands were decidedly unfeminine and let go, turning to see who was holding him.  

Trowa smiled, happy to see Heero alive and well.  "Welcome back," he said.

"Thanks," Heero said softly.  He looked around to see Duo and Jinx still unconscious.  

Trowa came up behind Heero, placing a hand on his shoulder.  "Don't worry," he said, "I would have checked to see if she was still holding me, too."  

Heero looked at him with wide eyes, but Trowa only smiled knowingly and didn't offer further explanation.

The clown placed his hands firmly on the edge of the pool and lifted himself effortlessly out of the water.  Trowa turned back around to face Heero in the pool.  "You need to stay in here for another thirty minutes," Trowa told him, looking at the chronometer on the wall to emphasize his point.  "I'm going to start warming up the shuttle."  He grabbed a towel from a nearby rack and dried himself off.  Then he collected his pants and shirt, got dressed, and left the healing room.

Heero looked down at the water.  It came up to his shoulders.  He glanced at Wufei holding Duo.  The water would be about to the base of Duo's neck if he were standing upright, Heero figured.  Wufei was having no problems keeping Duo's head out of the water.

Quatre, on the other hand, was a different story.  The water line was already halfway up Quatre's neck, and Jinx wasn't much taller than Quatre.  He was struggling to keep her head from being submerged.

Heero walked slowly through the water to Quatre.  "Here," he offered.  "Let me take her, the water's too high."

"Thanks," Quatre said, relieved.  "I was afraid I'd drop her."  He gently placed Jinx in Heero's waiting arms and swam to the ladder at the side of the pool.

Heero smiled.  Of the pilots, Quatre was the only one shy enough to wear a t-shirt in the pool.  All the rest of them settled for wearing only boxers.  Except Jinx, of course.  They had left her navy shirt on, and she was still adorning Heero's boxers.  Hm, they had to find her some more suitable clothes soon, Heero thought.  

He was content to hold her here, in a mock embrace.  Unlike the others, Heero held his charge facing him.  

Wufei noticed.  After Quatre left, Wufei decided to inquire about it.  "Heero," he started, "do you like this girl?"

This was strange.  Talking to Wufei about females?  Heero wasn't going to lie this time around.  "I do," he admitted.

Wufei nodded.  

"I knew you did," a small voice spoke up.  Duo was awake.

"How long have you been awake?" Wufei asked him, releasing his hold on Duo.

"Long enough to hear Heero say…" Duo smiled as he talked.

"Shut up, Duo," Heero interrupted.  

"Nope," Duo joked, "I don't think you said 'shut up, Duo' just a little while ago…"

Wufei was already out of the pool.  "If you ladies are going to bother each other like this," he said, drying off, "then I'm going to help Trowa and Quatre get the shuttle ready for departure.  We're still expected this afternoon, you know."  He pulled his pants on.  He'd left out mentioning that they were expected _at Relena's_ later that afternoon.  And Wufei wasn't planning on mentioning that; he was sure that Heero was well aware of where the shuttle was headed next.

Duo watched Wufei leave and then dunked his head under the water.  He spurted water everywhere when he surfaced.  "How much longer do we have to stay in here?" he asked, already bored.

"Another twenty two minutes."

"Darn."  Duo began swimming laps to keep himself busy.  

Heero just held Jinx.  Her skin seemed darker today than it had yesterday.  In fact, now that Heero thought about it, her skin changed color all the time.  When he first saw her, her skin tone was the same as Duo's.  Then, that night he met with her downstairs, her skin was tanned.  It was still copper-toned the next day when they left for the mission.  After it started getting cold, though, her face and the rest of her skin paled.  Now, it was getting darker again.  Perhaps she was a chameleon, he mused.

Jinx's arms came up out of the water and wrapped around Heero's neck, reflexively hugging him back.  He was sure she was still unconscious, but he held her closer.  She responded by snuggling her nose into the base of his neck to rest her head on his shoulder.  He liked this type of sleepwalking.  

Duo was tired of waiting, and he jumped out of the pool.  He dried with a towel quickly and got dressed with lightning speed.  As soon as he had all his clothes on, he rushed out of the room to find the other pilots, and to leave Heero alone with Jinx.  

Jinx moaned a little as she woke up.  She sprang back from Heero, startled that they had been holding each other.  In her quick movement, she immediately took a big mouthful of water and had to spit it back out.

"Ew," she said, sticking her tongue out.  

Heero reached out and put a hand on each of her shoulders, pulling her back close to him.  She floated to him easily through the water.  Heero gently placed his arms around her waist, lifting her off the floor of the pool.  Jinx smiled at him and held him close.

She regretted having to let go of him, but they had to leave sometime.  Heero helped her out of the pool.  Jinx didn't have a dry shirt to wear, but Quatre had thought ahead.  He'd brought a bag full of clothes for Jinx, including some jeans and t-shirts as well as dresses for all kinds of formal occasions.

Heero smiled as she entered the shuttle where the Gundam pilots were waiting patiently for her.  Even with all those new clothes, she'd decided to keep wearing his jeans.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Sally Po breathed a sigh of relief as Wufei's face confirmed the success of the rescue mission.  She'd been waiting on pins and needles in Relena's palace, as had everyone else present.  Wufei cut off transmission.

Walking down the hallway to the receiving room, Sally was greeted by the anxious faces of Relena, Noin, Hilde, and Catherine, who had taken time out from the circus to visit her brother.  "Don't worry, girls," she said with a smile.  "All Gundam pilots are present and accounted for."  

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Trowa landed the shuttle in Relena's backyard.  She was sure to be pissed about him scorching her rose bushes, but the bitch deserved it, he reasoned.  Trowa had never forgiven Relena's sleeping with Quatre for no other reason than to make Heero mad.  

"Nice killing of the rose bushes," Wufei commented.  

"Thanks."

Together, they shut down the systems of the shuttle and locked it down.  The Gundam pilots and Jinx gathered their respective bags, including the ones salvaged from the first shuttle for Heero and Duo, and made their way to the palace.  

Of course, Relena was there with a gigantic smile to greet them all.  Trowa winced as she hugged him first.  That's what I get for having the longest stride, he thought to himself.  Maybe he should start walking slower from now on.  

She hugged Quatre, who seemed to shrink back from her embrace, and Wufei, who had a look of unequivocal disgust on his face.  The other girls present greeted the men as well.  

Relena stopped short when she noticed Heero and Duo walking on either side of another girl as they approached the back porch of the palace.  

"Relena!" Duo called out, dropping his bag and giving her a big bear hug.  After he set her back down on the ground, he indicated the foreign girl standing next to Heero.  "This is Jinx, she's an operative for the Preventors.  You remember us talking about her, right?"

It took Relena a moment to get over her shock of seeing another girl.  "Uh, hello," Relena said taking a while to recover her composure.

"Good afternoon, President Peacecraft," Jinx said, bowing, showing off her superior skills at keeping composure.  

"Relena," Heero said, giving her a nod and effectively taking Relena's attention away from Jinx.  He stared at her coldly, unblinking.  Relena stared back and smiled, trying to discover what emotions lay behind his impassive blue eyes.   

Jinx flinched inwardly as they stared at each other.  She knew he still loved her.  He had practically admitted it to Quatre yesterday morning.  Walking over to Duo, she held his hand and started walking to meet the other persons present.

Something flickered across Heero's eyes, Relena noticed.  What she didn't know was his perfect soldier façade had been broken by the quick pain he'd noticed from Jinx, not some realization of burning desire as Relena hoped.  

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Sally whistled at some of the gowns lying on her bed in the room she shared with Catherine.  "Man, Quatre really knows how to pick some nice ones," she commented to no one in particular.  She and Catherine had gone through the bag Quatre had given Jinx in order to dress her for the formal tonight.  

She turned around to look at Catherine doing Jinx's hair.  

"Done," Catherine announced, smiling broadly at her latest achievement.  

Jinx was wearing a dark red and simply styled dress, with thin straps that crisscrossed in the back.  She walked to the full-length mirror, her dress flowing around her feet.  Catherine had done her hair up halfway, letting most of her massive hair curl in tendrils down her back.  Jinx ran a finger over the scars on her left upper arm.

Sally came up behind her in the mirror, wearing a sleek black dress with silver lining and a slit up to her mid-thigh.  She placed a hand over Jinx's shameful marks.  "No one will notice," she told her.  "And I doubt if anyone will care."

Walking away from Jinx, Sally motioned to Catherine that they should leave.  

"We'll meet you downstairs soon, Jinx," Catherine called out lightheartedly to her as they disappeared beyond the doorway.  

Jinx stared at herself in the mirror.  Here she was, looking like a real woman and in a beautiful dress.  Yet in all her life, she had never felt more naked.  She sighed.  There was nothing she could do about the brands now, she thought.  Grabbing a sheer and matching shawl, she wrapped it around her shoulders and examined her left arm again.  Even though the material was see-through, it concealed the scars well enough for them to go unnoticed.  

Satisfied with her appearance, finally, she made her way down the stairs to the party.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

"You're acting like a maniac," Wufei said, annoyed with Duo.  

"Hey, I'm just excited," Duo explained.  "Lets dance, Wu-man!"  Duo grabbed the champagne from Wufei's hand, handed it to Quatre, and dragged Wufei out onto the dance floor.

"What is your malfunction!?" Wufei screamed at him, pulling his hands out of Duo's and trying to distance himself from his over-enthusiastic friend.  

"Duo," Sally said from behind him.  "May I cut in?"

"Of course," Duo said, bowing elaborately to her.  

Wufei was thankful to be rescued by Sally, and looked forward to dancing with her.  The black dress she wore made her completely enticing.  To his surprise, instead of Sally dancing with him, she started dancing with Duo.  

Muttering all the way back to where Quatre and Trowa were standing, Wufei grabbed his drink from Quatre's hand and chugged it.  Trowa laughed at him as Wufei reached for another glass that passed by on a waiter's tray.

After their dance, Sally and Duo came over to the three waiting gentlemen.  

"So where's Heero?" Duo asked, downing a glass.

Trowa nodded in Heero's general direction.  Duo turned to see Heero leaning against a pillar in the shadows, obviously trying to avoid Relena who was desperately searching the crowd for him.  

Sally and Wufei left to dance, with Wufei glaring at Duo as he walked past.  

"Wow," Quatre uttered, looking past Trowa and Duo at something.  They turned to see what he was looking at.  

Jinx was walking through the clumps of people standing and socializing.  She looked relieved when she finally made her way to them, avoiding the advancements from other men.  

"I hate formals," she said with a sigh, her arms wrapped around herself.

"But you do it so well," Duo said with a tease, hugging her with one arm.  

"You do look beautiful tonight," Quatre said, blushing a little and kissing her on the cheek.  

"I must agree," Trowa chimed in, kissing her hand politely.

"Thanks," she smiled, blushing and looking down.  Trowa offered a glass of champagne, but she shook her head no and turned it down with a smile.  "Where's Heero?" she asked.

"Avoiding Relena," Quatre answered, pointing to where they had last seen him.  "Oh, no.  She found him."

Duo watched as Jinx's crimson eyes came to rest on Relena and Heero.  He saw them flicker with a strange light as Relena threw herself on Heero in an embrace.  Heero didn't necessarily respond to her advances, but at the moment, Duo doubted it mattered.  Jinx was a victim to a bad case of jealousy.

"Come on," he said, tightening his grip around her waist.  "Let's show Wufei how to really dance."  Jinx couldn't turn down an offer like that.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Heero backed away from Relena's unexpected show of affection.  What the hell was wrong with her?  First she sleeps with his best friend, now she's Miss "Oh I missed you so much, Heero."  This shit doesn't happen to anyone but him.  

Relena was blabbing on about something.  Heero wasn't paying attention, but he did pay attention to the way Duo had his hand on Jinx's waist as they danced around Wufei and Sally.  And he definitely noticed how beautiful and sexy Jinx looked in the dress that was a shade darker than her eyes.  

"Hm," Heero responded to one of her questions.  Relena was still talking on and on like he cared.  He hadn't seen her in three years, save for the brief meeting the other week.  He had been so mad at her, and had blamed her for his being mad that he couldn't bring himself to even be present in the same room with her.  So why was he here now?  He couldn't figure out why.  Maybe cause Jinx looked so good.  

As if on cue, Jinx looked over Duo's shoulder and smiled at Heero.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

"What was that?" Duo asked, that teasing tone creeping back into his voice.  

"Nothing," Jinx replied, smiling with slight embarrassment and placing her head on Duo's soft tuxedoed shoulder.  "He really does love her, doesn't he?" she asked, her voice tainted with sadness.

"No, I don't think he does," Duo replied, talking softly so that no one could hear him but Jinx.  "Maybe he used to, but she hurt him.  And I don't think that it's forgivable."  He tightened his arms around her waist, and she responded with a sigh and started playing the end of his long braid through her fingers absentmindedly.  "I think he likes you, though."

"What?"  Jinx's head snapped up as she stared Duo in the eyes.  

"I think he likes you," Duo repeated.

"No he doesn't."  Her voice was low and quiet, and it had a different emotion permeating though it.  Duo wasn't sure if he could name it.  Failure? 

"I think he does," Duo insisted as she laid her head back on his shoulder, melting into his comforting arms.  "Heero needs someone like you, Jinx.  You and he are so alike, it's almost scary.  But it's a good thing, for the two of you.  Neither one of you are familiar with this whole emotions, compassion, and humanity thing, which makes you perfect for each other.  You can rediscover the worlds lost behind your training.  And you can do it together."  Duo ended his speech, proud that he finally found the right words to say to her.  If only he could tell Heero now, then maybe they'd actually admit their feelings for each other.  

Jinx didn't answer.  She was deep in thought, trying to sort out her own emotions, and Duo knew it.  So he didn't try to bother her or talk to her.  He just held his friend as she struggled with her own heart and mind.

The dance ended, and Quatre came up timidly.  He tapped on Duo's shoulder, because Duo was still holding Jinx, regardless of the cessation of music.  None of the other guests were left in the dancehall.  "Hey Duo, the dance is over," Quatre announced.

"I know, I know, I know," Duo groaned, releasing Jinx and stretching.  They'd been dancing, or rather holding each other, for the last hour and a half of the formal.  As he stretched, the shoulder of his jacket brushed against his cheek, and he felt that it was wet.  Confused, he looked at Jinx.

Trowa walked up and put a hand on her shoulder, noticing her tears before Duo did.  Quatre handed her a handkerchief, and she took it to dab away the rest of her tears.

"I'm sorry," she said wearily.  

"No need to apologize," Quatre told her, putting an arm around her shoulders to lead her up to her room.  She didn't resist as he took her up the stairs to where Relena, Wufei, and Heero were waiting.  Duo and Trowa were following; each of them grabbed an extra bottle of champagne before leaving the empty dancehall.   

Heero's eyes flashed in anger again at seeing Quatre with his arm around a saddened Jinx.  Quatre was used to that look.  Heero's eyes had been working overtime as he glared at Relena for her stupid babbling, then at Duo for dancing with Jinx.  It had gone on like that all night long.  

Relena was too dense to notice the tension.  "I'm sorry guys, but with all the diplomats in town, and the girls visiting, I only have three rooms for all of you.  And with _her_ here…that could present a problem."  Relena was glaring at Jinx.

Duo was quick on defense.  "No problem," he insisted.  "We're all soldiers here.  As long as there are enough beds for us, then there is no problem at all.  Regardless of who's here with us."  Trowa and Duo were both glaring back at Relena now. 

Wufei gave up on the whole situation and threw his stuff in the middle room, closing the door behind him after he entered.  

But it did present a problem, Duo thought.  Quatre and Trowa were most likely to bunk together, and he and Heero were too.  That left Jinx to bunk with Wufei, and Duo did not wish for the horrors of sleeping in the same room as Wufei on anyone.  Except maybe Relena right now…

"Well, Heero," Duo started, picking his bag off of the floor in the hall where they had all piled their belongings.  "I'll see you in the morning."  He opened the door and walked into Wufei's room.

Heero had a hard time controlling his surprise.  Duo was setting him up to share a room with Jinx?  He glanced over to where Quatre and Trowa were.  But they had already gone, having slipped out of the tense hallway and into their room.  Heero was left with Relena and Jinx, alone in the hallway.  

He nonchalantly shrugged at Relena, as if this sort of thing happened everyday.  He picked up both his bag and the bag of Jinx's that Catherine had thoughtfully repacked and set in the hall with the pilots' bags.  With a bag in each hand, he held the door open with his foot for Jinx.

Relena stalked off in a huff down the hallway.


	8. Roommates?

DISCLAIMER – I do not own Gundam Wing.

Chapter Eight

"Top or bottom?" Quatre asked Trowa after closing the bedroom door, shutting out the soon-to-be argument in the hallway.

Trowa rolled his eyes and glared.

"Ok, I know," Quatre said, tossing his laptop on the top bunk and setting his bag on the floor.  "It's been a while since any of us have had to share rooms.  Your preferences could have changed since those years ago."

Trowa was already lying shirtless and shoeless on the bottom bed, with his arms crossed behind his head.  

"So how do you think it turned out?" Quatre asked, going into the bathroom to change out of his tux.  

Relena's stomping could be heard as she stalked down the hall.  "Judging by Relena's footsteps, I'd say that Duo fixed it so Heero and Jinx would be in the same room," Trowa answered.

"You think so?"  Quatre was talking through the bathroom door.

"Mm hmm." 

"So what do you think will happen?"  Quatre continued with his slough of questions as he walked out of the bathroom, dressed in silk pajamas.  

"Happen where?" Trowa asked in answer.  "Do I think Duo will survive the night bunking with Wufei?  Probably not.  And I don't know what will happen between Heero and Jinx.  They are both soldiers, perfectly tuned to disregard all but the objectives of the mission, which as this point is sleep.  But there's a lot of sexual tension between them."

Quatre climbed to the top bunk.  He pulled out his laptop and set it in his lap, ready to check on the family business before going to bed.  Quatre jumped when he heard a loud popping sound from below him.

Trowa tossed the champagne cork aside and tipped back the bottle.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

"Duo Maxwell!"  Wufei Chang did not wish to spend his week here at Relena's palace rooming with that girly-braided, hyperactive maniac.  

Duo, with his bag in one hand and the champagne bottle he'd stolen from the party in another, just grinned at Wufei.  "Come on, man.  We have to give Jinx and Heero a chance to stay in the same room together…"

"Heero is nineteen years old, and old enough to take care of his own love life, Duo," Wufei chastised.  

"You mean his own lack of a love life," Duo grumbled back at him.  "Besides, what's the big deal?  You sleep on the bottom bunk; I'll sleep on top.  We never even have to talk to each other if you don't want."  Duo had taken off his jacket, cummerbund, and tie.  He unbuttoned a few buttons of his shirt and pulled it out of the waist of his pants.  They heard the pop as Trowa opened the champagne bottle next door.

"I still don't want to room with you," Wufei pouted.

"After all these years you're still…." Duo's argument was interrupted by a soft knock at the door.  "Huh?"

A female voice called through the closed door softly, "Wufei?"  She opened the door to stand face to face with Duo, who burst into uncontrollable fits of laughter.  

Sally turned bright red.

"Now I understand why you didn't want me to room with you!" Duo said between laughs.  

"Maxwell," Wufei warned.

"It's alright," Duo said still laughing.  "I can take a hint. I'm going, I'm going."  He headed past Sally.  "But I'm taking this with me," he said, grabbing the bottle of champagne and closing the door behind him.  

At first, Duo couldn't decide whether to go into Trowa and Quatre's room or Heero and Jinx's.  He stood out in the hallway for a minute, looking side to side from one doorway to the next.  Finally, he decided to check and see how Heero and Jinx were doing.

He knocked on the door.  Then he knocked louder.  They must be inside, so he opened the door slowly, peaking around the edge.  

No one was in the small room with two bunked beds.  Jinx's bag was at the foot of the bottom bed, which meant Heero must have taken the top bed.  But no one was in either bed.  Duo set the bottle on the night table and sat on Jinx's bed, getting comfortable leaning against the headboard.  

The running water of the shower turned off.  Realization hit Duo square in the face.  Since no one was in the room, they must be in the shower together!  Not wanting to embarrass them, he made a running break for the door before they emerged.

"Duo," Heero's stern voice caused Duo to stop in mid-leap, his hand still reaching out for the doorknob.  If Duo had been in here with Jinx…, Heero's mind clouded with anger as he wrapped the towel tighter around his waist. 

"Hey, Heero," Duo said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand.  "Sorry for coming in here without asking…"  He looked around Heero into the bathroom, searching for Jinx.

"Where's Jinx?" the boys asked in unison.

"Shit," Heero mumbled, digging through his bag for a pair of shorts.  He found a pair, which were a little too big for him, but at the moment, he didn't care.  Disregarding underclothes, he pulled on the shorts and ran into the hall to search for Jinx.  

Duo took off and ran for a few steps as if he'd assist Heero in his search but then decided to let Heero find her.  He left the bottle of champagne on the table, purposefully, and made his way to Trowa and Quatre's room.

"Hey guys," Duo said, sitting between an already tipsy Trowa and Quatre on the bed.  Quatre handed Duo the two-thirds empty bottle.  

"Just enough for you," Quatre said, giggling.  

Duo downed the rest of the bottle and leaned back against the wall.  He thought he could hear Sally and Wufei in the next room.  Together with Trowa and Quatre, Duo slipped into a peaceful alcohol-induced sleep.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Heero rushed along the hall and down the stairs, with his hair still dripping wet.  He had to pull his pants up a little when he reached the bottom stair.  A female figure was in the receiving room, waiting for him.

He walked up slowly, and realized too late that it was Relena.  She was wearing a short silk nightgown with spaghetti straps that revealed too much cleavage and way too much leg.   

Relena couldn't breathe as Heero approached her.  He was wearing nothing but shorts, and his body was glistening from his recent shower.  Her eyes roamed from his shaggy wet hair down his muscled torso and to the shorts hanging low off his hips, showing the lines that only men with finely tuned bodies possessed.

Relena's eyes were not the only pair taking in Heero's body.  

She walked closer to Heero.  He took two steps back away from her.  "Heero," she started, trying to get closer to him.  

"What do you want?" Heero asked, the anger showing in his voice.

"I wanted to talk to you.  I wanted to talk to you about…"

"I don't want to talk about it, Relena."

"But Heero," she cried, throwing herself into his arms.  "I wanted to say I was sorry, Heero.  I wanted to say that I still love you."  She held onto him even tighter after her confesson.

Heero looked down at Relena in his arms.  It was now or never, he thought.  He either had to tell her he still loved her and wanted to try to reconcile what had happened between them, or…

"Relena," he said, getting her to look up at him.  He untangled himself from her embrace and held her by the shoulders, looking directly into her eyes.  "I do not want you."

She took off crying to her room.

Heero sighed.  He didn't want to hurt her, but…what the hell?  He did want to hurt her.  She had hurt him after all.  Shaking his head to clear it, he resumed his search for Jinx and started walking toward the kitchen.  

Something was tugging on the back of his mind.  

Jinx.

He looked around for her, knowing she was somewhere in the room.  Jinx appeared from around a bookcase, still wearing her gown from the party.  She had her head down, obviously ashamed for having listened in on his conversation.

_I'm sorry, I shouldn't have stayed_…her words entered his mind.  

_Don't worry about it,_ Heero insisted.  All he had to do now was tell her how he felt about her…he hesitated.  _Are you hungry?_ he asked instead, motioning toward the kitchen.

She shook her head no.  _I just had to get out and walk alone,_ she explained.  _I didn't have much of a reason for leaving the room.  _She remembered the urgency she'd sensed in Heero when he entered the room earlier.  _I'm sorry if I worried you_.

Heero pulled his pants up a little.  _It's alright.  I just had to make sure you were ok._  He felt like a timid little school-boy around her.  He felt nervous about what she thought of him.  Heero tried to hide it.  _Ready to go to bed?_  He walked a few steps toward the stairway.  

Jinx followed, but she didn't answer him.  Heero held the bedroom door open for her.  She walked in silently, and simply sat on her bed.  He was starting to get really worried.

Kneeling in front of her, Heero tried to look into her eyes.  _Are you sure you're alright?_

_I'm just thinking,_ she explained, _I'm having a hard time getting my feelings straight._  Oops, that was a little more than she'd planned on telling him.  

_If something is wrong, you can tell me_, Heero offered.  

_Thank you, Heero.  But right now I'm too tired to move, and I just want to go to bed._  She sighed and dropped back on the bed.  

Jinx was lying down in front of him, and she looked gorgeous in that dress.  Heero closed his eyes, trying to fight the urge to crawl on top of her and kiss her.  

He stood up instead, grabbing her hands to lift her to a standing position too.  Heero carefully slipped the sheer shawl from around her shoulders and tossed it up onto his bed.  He sensed a kind of submission from her and something else…pleasure?  He wasn't sure.  But she didn't object to his undressing her, so he continued to get her ready for bed.  

Walking around behind her, he started unzipping her dress and trying desperately to control himself.  He noticed the brand on her arm and ran his fingers over it gently.  Her eyes were closed.  He put one of his own t-shirt over her head, careful not to take off the dress before she was covered with the t-shirt.  Just because he wanted to see her naked again didn't mean he was going to take advantage of her feeling bad now.  Of course, the shirt was too big and came down to her mid-thigh, making exposure impossible.  Heero was thankful for that.  He squatted down, and put a hand on her ankle to help her step out of the dress pooled at her feet.  Standing back up, he pressed her backwards gently, making her sit back down on her bed.  Kneeling in front of her again, he slipped off her high-heeled shoes.  

Gathering all of her clothing in his arms, he set the shoes down in the base of the closet and started hanging up the dress.  When he'd finished and turned back around, he was startled to find that she was simply watching him as he moved about the room.  She scooted closer to her pillow, and Heero pulled back the covers for her.  Her legs slipped between the sheets easily, and he pulled the covers up to her stomach.  

All this not talking and her watching him was unnerving to him.  He turned away from her, noticing the bottle that Duo had left on the table.  Taking it in his hands, he popped the cork.  Heero sat on the bed with her and held the bottle out, offering her the first drink.

_Duo left this for us,_ he explained.  

_Duo,_ she repeated.  Her warm feelings for Duo wrapped around Heero like a wet blanket.  Heero's hopes fell to the floor.  So she did like Duo best, he thought to himself.  _Duo is a good friend_, she said absentmindedly, running her fingers over the label of the champagne.  

_So,_ Heero began,_ you like Duo?_

She tilted her head back and took a large swig of alcohol.  Then she took another.  _I like all your friends.  Quatre is nice, and so is Trowa.  I think Wufei hides his feelings too much, but he's nice, too, deep down inside.  He just doesn't want to admit it.  _She took another drink.  Abstinence from alcohol her entire life made her more susceptible to this light amount she was imbibing.  _But Duo's nicest of all.  A very good friend._  She drank again.  Her head was beginning to feel light.  _He's trying to get us together, you know_.  

Jinx handed the bottle to Heero.

_Yea, I know_, he admitted.  

He took a few gulps and set the bottle down on the table beside her bed.  When he leaned closer to her to reach the table, he thought he heard her breathing change.  

Heero stood up from the bed, backing away from the look of intense desire in her eyes.  She threw the covers of her bed back and stood up in front of him, walking closer.  He stood unmoving in the middle of the room, and she just got closer and closer.  

Soon, she was up against him, reaching up to run her hands though his still damp hair.  Heero closed his eyes, unable to fathom why she would want to be so close to him.  Instinctively, he ran his hands down her arms and sides, letting them set on her waist as he pulled her closer to kiss him.  He broke their kiss to lift her shirt off over her head.  Bending down, he lightly kissed the scars of the OZ Special Assassin brand on her arm.  

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Quatre moaned and rolled over, regretting his drinking binge with Trowa last night because of the pounding hangover headache he was now plagued with.  He felt someone beside him.  Were Trowa and Duo still passed out in the bed from last night?  Quatre opened his eyes and beheld… Relena.

"Oh Quatre," she said, brushing some of his hair out of his eyes.  "You're awake now…"

"Get out of my bed, you crazy bitch!" Quatre screamed, pushing Relena.  She thudded hard on the floor.

"Quatre Reberba Winner, since when do you treat women this way?" 

"Since I wake up and find you here," he growled, sitting up and holding his pounding head.  Her high-pitched loud voice wasn't helping the headache.  "And where's Duo and Trowa?"

Relena stood up, revealing the same little silk nightgown she'd had on when she saw Heero the night before.  She crossed her arms and pouted, "I don't know where your stupid friends are.  They were gone this morning when I came in to wake you up.  The shuttle's gone too."  Relena gave her best hmph and walked out of Quatre's room.

Quatre recovered and locked the bedroom door, to prevent a reoccurrence of another Relena invasion.  He took a shower, relishing how the warm water soothed his head.  After getting dressed, Quatre really began to wonder about Trowa and Duo.  From the way Trowa's bag looked, and the fact that Duo had brought his bag from Wufei's room into their room, Quatre could only conclude that they'd gotten up before he did and gotten dressed without him waking up.  And they both left without saying where they were going.  He hoped they weren't getting into trouble.  


	9. Do you Yield?

DISCLAIMER – I do not own Gundam Wing.

Chapter Nine

Everyone, save the missing Trowa and Duo, was downstairs eating breakfast when Quatre arrived.  Sally and Wufei were playfully fighting already, Heero was sitting very close to Jinx, and Relena just glared at them all.  Hilde, Catherine, and Noin were there too, and Quatre couldn't help but notice how enchanting Cathy looked in her green dress.  Jinx was dressed in some of the clothes he'd brought for her.  Thank goodness she was out of the boy's clothes, Quatre thought, admiring his choices for her attire.  She was wearing a pair of slightly baggy jeans, a black fitted tank top and a dark blue shirt that she left unbuttoned.  Heero was wearing his "Bob" mechanics shirt, which meant he must be planning to salvage later that day.

Quatre sat down at the table.  Heero nodded hello to him and the girls each said their own welcome, except Relena who was still sore, figuratively and literally, about being pushed out of the bed.  

"Where did Trowa and Duo go?" Quatre asked, reaching for some pastries.  

"Noin informed them of a carrier heading toward that OZ base.  They took the shuttle and left to destroy it," Wufei explained.  

"How come you guys didn't go?" 

"Duo and Trowa were already awake," Heero said.  "Besides, it only takes a couple of people to blow up a carrier."

Quatre nodded in agreement.  The girls were engrossed in their own small talk.  

Heero got up.  _I'm going to get some supplies.  I'll be back by the time Trowa and Duo get back from their mission_, he explained to Jinx.  Before he left, he bent down and kissed her on her left shoulder.

Sally couldn't help but smile.  She knew the significance of kissing Jinx there.  

"Ok," Jinx replied out loud.  "Be careful," she called over her shoulder at him as he walked down the entryway to the front door.

"Be careful?" Relena repeated, her voice dripping with distaste.  She got up and ran after Heero, catching him in the hall before he disappeared through the door.  

"Where are you going, Heero?" she asked.

"I have stuff to do.  I'll be back later," he replied, deliberately not giving her any details.

Relena stood pouting in front of him.  "How come you kissed Jinx?" she asked.

Heero just stared at her coldly.

"I'm going to have to have a talk with her," Relena said, trying to sound threatening.

"Don't get yourself killed, Relena," Heero said, walking out the door.

"What stupid kind of cryptic message is that?!" she cried after him.  

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

After Relena ran off, Wufei excused himself from the table, wanting to go and get some martial arts practice in before his friends returned.  He had a feeling Heero knew what he knew, and they'd all have to be in top form when Trowa and Duo returned in order to survive the further wrath of Relena.  

Jinx asked to join him, and so she left the table too, leaving Quatre surrounded by girls.  

"What's with Heero and that girl?" Relena scowled as she returned.  

"I think Heero likes her," Sally said with a gossiping tone of voice.  "They slept in the same room last night."

"Really?" Hilde asked.  "In the same room or in the same bed?"

"In the same bed," Noin said, joining in and giving her little tidbit of information just to make Relena madder.  "When I went in there this morning to tell Heero about the carrier, they were still asleep together."  Noin left to find Wufei, emphasizing her bit of gossip.

Quatre enjoyed the girls' provoking Relena, and they were excellent at doing it too.   

"So that's the real reason Heero didn't go on the mission," Cathy teased.  Relena was turning red with rage.  Cathy turned her attention to Quatre, who was trying not to laugh.  "Why did Jinx speak to Heero like that, Quatre?  It's almost as if they can read each other's mind."  Cathy got up to put her dishes away.  

Quatre smiled.  "They can."  He got up too, being finished with his light breakfast.  "Sometimes you walk in a room and they're just staring at each other, like this..." Quatre got inches away from Cathy's face and stared unblinkingly into her eyes.  

"Just staring, not saying a word..." he continued, still staring at Cathy without moving.  She began to giggle and squirm from his unrelenting gaze.  Quatre started to laugh too.

Sally joined in the conversation, "Jinx has psychic powers, and she's always been able to sense other people's feelings and even communicate to people through her mind."

"And when she met Heero," Quatre continued, "she found someone who could actually talk back to her."

Noin's running feet called all their attention to the doorway.  "Sally, Sally, you have to come and see this!"

Everyone raced after Noin, heading toward the gym room where Wufei was most likely working out.

Wufei was definitely getting a workout.  His jacket was on the floor, and he was panting in his loose black sleeveless shirt and white pants.  Jinx was in a fighting stance opposite him, breathing heavily and adorning only her black tank top and baggy jeans.  Both of them were glistening with sweat, and Wufei's hair was falling out of his ponytail.

"DO YOU YIELD?" Jinx screamed at Wufei.

"NO!" he yelled back.

For the better part of two hours, they watched Wufei and Jinx battle.  Broken swords and other martial arts weapons of destruction were scattered all over the floor.  Sais, knives, and stars were sticking into the walls at various places.  

With an unbroken sword still in hand, Wufei charged at Jinx.  She leapt into the air, used his head as a springboard, and somersaulted over him picking up a couple of undamaged knives off the ground as she returned to a fighting stance.  Wufei spun around to face her again.  

A knife hit the pillar behind him, and inch above his head.  Jinx held the blade of the other knife between her first and middle finger, ready to throw it, too.  

"Wow," Quatre said, leaning over to Catherine.  "She's almost as good as you."

"Are you kidding?" she whispered back.  "She's way better than I am."

"DO YOU YIELD?" Jinx screamed at Wufei.

"NO!" he yelled back, rushing at her again.  Jinx used the small knife in her hand to deflect Wufei's thrust, and she brought her elbow down on the base of his skull as he rushed by, sending him sprawling to the ground.  Moving quickly, despite her tired body, she picked up Wufei's dropped sword and straddled him, bracing each of his arms with a knee.  Jinx held the sword to Wufei's throat.  

Wufei finally yielded.  

Applause erupted from the gathered crowd.  Jinx smiled with embarrassment and helped Wufei off the floor.  They both bowed quickly to each other and the group of onlookers.  

"That's what I meant by not getting yourself killed," Heero said from behind Relena, startling her so much that she yelped in surprise.  Before she had a chance to respond, Heero walked past her and picked up Jinx and Wufei's discarded shirts on the ground.  He handed Wufei's to him.  

"Thanks," Wufei said, a little out of breath.  "She's good," he admitted.  

"See?" Sally said, hugging Wufei from behind despite his sweatiness and the public environment.  "Not all women are weak."  Wufei only smiled at her.

Quatre's eyes narrowed as he saw the brand on Jinx's shoulder.  "You never told us about this," he said, accusingly.

Jinx backed away from him like she'd been hit.  Her right hand instinctively went up to cover the scars on her left shoulder.  

Heero came up behind her, placing his own hand on top of hers protectively.  "We all have a past, Quatre," he said softly with a stern voice.

"But an OZ Special?  They're the most highly trained, savage, ruthless group of soldiers ever produced.  How can we..." Quatre stopped talking when he saw the hurt in Jinx's red eyes.  Heero was right: everyone had a past.  And she didn't have the choice to leave OZ when she was young and taken to the military.  "I'm sorry," he said, hanging his head.  "I shouldn't..."

He was interrupted by a kiss on his cheek.  Quatre looked up and blushed slightly to see Jinx smiling at him in forgiveness.  Even more amazing, Heero didn't seem jealous that Jinx had just kissed him.  Heero ran his fingers tenderly over her left shoulder and then walked toward the gardens in the back of the palace.  

Wufei and Jinx left to take showers and change clothes.

A large rumble shook the palace, making several vases and crystalline structures fall off shelves and break into shards.  Relena went screaming into the gardens, yelling insults at the two returning Gundam pilots.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Trowa landed the carrier behind the palace, destroying the remaining rose bushes and most of the other plants in the gardens as well.  

"Nice killing of the rose bushes," Duo praised.

"Thanks."  Trowa smiled proudly.  

Both pilots waved goofily out the window at the screaming form of Relena.

"She is going to be so pissed," Duo said through the clenched teeth of his fake smile.  

"Uh huh," Trowa agreed, not disturbing his plastered smile.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

"You stupid idiots, what are you doing destroying more of my garden!? " Relena screamed at them as she ran outside, watching hopelessly as Trowa landed the large carrier in the backyard of her palace.  

Heero appeared, driving a large truck and running over the remaining plants of the garden.  

Relena left the garden screaming and waving her arms in the air.

Mission accomplished, Heero thought as she slammed the door behind her.  Quatre and the girls with him remained outside, waiting for Duo and Trowa to come out of the carrier.  

"What is this?" Quatre asked, pointing at the large aircraft.

"A carrier," Duo answered, climbing down from the hatch.

"I can see that, Duo," Quatre countered, annoyed.  "But weren't you guys supposed to _blow up_ that carrier, not bring it home and keep it?"  

"Hey," Trowa said with an uncharacteristic smile on his face.  "What better to fight OZ with than their own mobile suits?  Besides, we were bored."

Wufei walked outside, joining the group after taking a lightning-speed shower.  "Nice carrier," he complemented Trowa and Duo.  "How many suits are inside?"

"Six," Duo answered.  "Enough for all of us and an extra."  He glanced over at Heero who had climbed out of the truck and come up to the group.  "Maybe Jinx would want to pilot the last one."

"Maybe she would.  I'll go ask her," he said, glad to have a reason to walk in on her showering.  "Be back in a while," Heero called to the group.  "There's some stuff in the back of the truck you might like to use to customize your weapons systems."  He head inside to Jinx.  

"Well," Duo said with a shrug.  "I guess we should get started."

The six mobile suits were unloaded, and the pilots began taking them apart and used Heero's gathered parts to recreate versions of their old Gundams.  Two suits were set aside: one for Heero and one for Jinx.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

"Jinx?" Heero called as he opened their bedroom door.  

_In here_, she said from the bathroom.  She emerged, wearing a towel around her.  

Heero smiled and locked the door behind his back before coming close to Jinx and kissing her.  He slipped a hand through the slit of the towel, feeling the soft skin of her stomach underneath.  Gently, he moved behind her and began kissing her ear and neck.  His kisses trailed down the left side of her neck to her shoulder, where he lingered over her OZ brand.  Jinx reached around with her right hand, grabbing Heero's hair and pulling his face up to hers, kissing him softly on the lips.  He tried to get closer to her, to deepen the kiss, but she kept holding him by the hair and his face remained barely too far away.  

Heero growled at her teasing, causing her to laugh at his frustration.  But soon enough, Jinx gave up on keeping Heero away and let go of his hair.  Heero wrapped his arms around her, holding her close and kissing her passionately.  He started backing up as he kissed her, heading toward the still unmade bed.  

_Oh no you don't_, her words entered his mind.  Her mouth was too full of his tongue for her to speak out loud.  

_Oh yes I do_, he teased, dragging her closer to the bed.  

Jinx braced a leg against the frame of the bed, preventing Heero from dragging them any closer to it.  _Ha!_ she laughed at him victoriously.  

_I'm a soldier_, he reminded her.  _I can improvise_.  With that, Heero suddenly swept with his leg, causing Jinx to fall to the floor with him on top of her.  She was laughing, a beautiful melodious sound to Heero.  He sat up on top of her, looking down at her near-naked figure with her black hair radiating across the floor.  

_I love you, you know_, he told her in a moment of seriousness, stroking her cheek with a finger.  

_I know_, she said.  She smiled and reached up, grabbing his shirt and pulling him back down on top of her.  Jinx began unbuttoning the buttons on his "Bob" shirt as she mouthed his ear and neck.  It made Heero forget what he wanted to say to her.  

_Wait a minute_, he said as she flung his shirt aside.  

_What?_ she asked, gazing up at him with star-filled eyes.

_You're supposed to…_

_Say I love you too?_ she teased as she started kissing him again, rubbing her hands over his chest.  Heero was about to break away from her and demand an answer when she stopped and looked at him intensely.  _I love you too_, she said, sealing it with a gentle kiss.  

Heero rolled off of her and lay beside her, with his head propped up on his elbow.  She mimicked his position, staring at him and reaching over with her free hand to tug playfully at the waist of his pants.  His own free hand traveled lightly up the outside of her thigh, and he was enjoying the shortness of the towel around her.  Amazing that the towel stayed on through all that, he thought.  

_Duo and Trowa brought mobile suits back_, he said suddenly, breaking the mood.  _We were hoping that you could pilot one of them._    

_Mobile suits?_ she asked, taking her hand away from him and rolling onto her back.  

_Yea,_ he affirmed, pulling himself closer to her and leaning over her.  _What's wrong?_

She shook her head no, refusing to look him in the eye.  Brushing him aside, she got up off the floor, smoothing out her hair.  

Heero stood up behind her, running his fingers through her hair to brush it out.  He combed it into a Duo-braid and kissed her lightly on the neck when he was done.  He wondered why she hadn't spoken since he mentioned the suits.  

Jinx melted as Heero hugged her from behind.  Here he was, being so nice to her and she didn't even have the balls to talk to him.  _Heero_, she called.  She felt his grip around her torso tighten momentarily, and she knew he was paying attention.  _I don't know how to pilot a suit_, she admitted.

Heero breathed a sigh of relief.  Thank goodness that was all that was bothering her, he thought to himself.  He turned her around in his arms to look into her eyes.  Jinx raised her arms up, holding the back of his neck and shoulder.  _I'll teach you everything I know_, he said with a smile.  Heero leaned down to kiss her again.

They were too engrossed in each other to notice the small sound of the unlocking door.


	10. Random Suicide

DISCLAIMER – I do not own Gundam Wing.****

Chapter Ten 

He frowned.  He watched the lovers as they tried to interfere with each other getting dressed.  Each of them wanting to get their clothes back on while trying to keep the other's clothes off.  They used to be such perfect soldiers.  He scowled.  _Human emotions breed weakness_, she had told him once after he'd failed a mission.  She had to come and finish the assassination, for he had softened when the target begged for its life.  _Sentiments cause humans to be submissive_, she often stated, _and blessed are the meek for they make easy targets_.  She gave her only grin – a very evil one that chilled him to the bone – after saying that favorite quotation.  _Blessed are the meek for they make easy targets_.  It was her motto, he often thought.  

Since that day, he had never faltered.  And until he saw her at this moment, he could never have believed her to succumb to such weakness: laughing as she playfully struggled to get her shirt on with pilot 01 trying to get it back off of her again.  It was disgusting to him.  His stomach heaved as he witnessed their _human_ happiness.  How shameful for such incredibly brutal soldiers to act like naïve school children.  They were better trained than this. 

He slowly edged the door a little wider, thankful that their blissful ignorance dulled their highly tuned senses.  Just wide enough for the muzzle of a gun, he calculated.  He brought his gun up, aiming at his ex-commanding officer.  The Plague would be the first to die, he decided.  Her traitorous sins needed atonement.  Revolting, he thought.  She leaned up to give a victory kiss to pilot 01, having successfully put a t-shirt and jeans on despite his objections and interference.

The gun was not enough of a punishment, he decided, lowering it and putting it back into the leg pocket of his OZ-issued flight suit.  He pulled a different piece of equipment from his check pocket, running his thumb lightly over the red button on the top.  Unzipping the top of the flight suit, he again eyed the explosives strapped to his chest, delicately caressing the wires and cylinders of volatile powder.  He took a deep breath, his finger over the trigger of the detonator.  This moment would immortalize him.

He felt no pain as the crudely-made bomb ripped his body apart.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Duo paused to wipe the sweat from his brow with his sleeve.  The pieces he needed for rebuilding a Deathscythe sickle littered the ground in front and under him.  He grinned, thinking of how Heero knew to salvage the necessary parts for all of them to customize their new mobile suits.  Of course, these suits weren't going to be nearly as good as the old Gundams, but in the situation, they would have to take what they could get.  Noin was at this moment conferring with the Executive Counsel and planning an offensive on the OZ base.  Quatre was with them, representing the Gundam pilots.  Quatre didn't need to customize his suit much: he'd saved the sitar blades from Sandrock and they were being transported to Relena's palace at this very moment.

Too bad Duo hadn't saved Deathscythe's sickle.  He'd have a lot less trouble right now if he had, he thought, looking down at his dirty and scraped hands.  Making this from scratch was harder than anything he'd done in the last five years.  Now he knew what the Sisters always complained about when they made him cookies from scratch.  Then again, making cookies is small in comparison to making a thermal weapon like the sickle.  

He tossed some wires to the side, on top of his jacket.  He'd have to work on the electronics later when he was clean and inside.  It could wait until tonight.  

Looking over the littered gardens, Duo tried to see how everyone else's progress was coming.  Trowa looked like he was doing fairly well, given the circumstances.  He had it hardest, trying to fashion a new Heavyarms-like gun.  Trowa was working on a barrel for the gun right now.  

Wufei was busy wrestling with creating his own thermal weapon.  

Duo looked over at the two suits setting aside for Heero and Jinx.  What kind of specialized weapon would Jinx like, he wondered?  Perhaps he should start designing something for her…She and Heero were in the West wing of the palace.  

Duo glanced up to the west wing of the palace, just in time to watch it burst in an explosion.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

The sound was deafening.  Relena stopped speaking in the middle of her speech, cut off by the loud boom that rattled the palace walls.  Soon after the initial blast, a multitude of smaller, but equally sickening and devastating, eruptions of sounds reverberated through the palace, evidence of the collapsing roof and walls of the west wing.  

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

The ground shook slightly as the fireball from the bomb explosion turned to smoke, staining the light blue sky above the west wing of the palace.  Soon after, the strong stone walls crumbled down and the intricately tiled roof disintegrated and fell on what used to be their bedrooms.  Duo, Wufei, and Trowa all stared, unable to move after witnessing the demise of the palace and knowing that Heero and Jinx were still inside.  

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Sally screamed out over the noise of the falling rubble.  Catherine had been too close to the impact, and she was caught in the collapse.  Sally called out to her again, straining to hear Cathy's answering yell over the intense noise of the falling debris.  She got dangerously close to a pile that had recently added itself to the mess on the floor, looking for a sign of Catherine.  She searched.  Her ears ached from her straining to hear Cathy's call despite the overwhelming noise of the collapsing building and fires burning farther down in the wing of the palace.  

Finally, she heard something other than the falling rock and rush of oxygen being consumed by flames.  She heard a small voice, calling from off to her left.  Sally stumbled over debris to get closer, heedless of her own safety.  Yes, it was Cathy calling.

"Cathy!" Sally yelled louder, trying to pinpoint the area from which she was hearing Catherine's voice.  "Cathy, keep yelling so I can find where you are!"

"I'm here, Sally, I'm here," she heard Catherine call back to her.  "I can't feel my legs, Sally.  I'm scared.  And it's hot.  I can feel heat from somewhere.  Is there a fire, Sally?  Help, Sally!"

Sally was busily trying to remove enough fallen rock to get to Catherine.  She prayed in the back of her mind, hoping for Cathy to be healthy and relatively uninjured.  But Cathy's mentioning of heat worried her.  Perhaps the fires from down the used-to-be hallway were getting closer than she first thought.  Maybe Cathy was feeling a fire from above them, in a part of the palace that hadn't collapsed yet.  Yet.  

She shoved large piece of wall aside, revealing a small, crushed hand.  "Cathy!" she yelled, taking a hold of the dirty fingers.  

"Sally!" Cathy answered, wiggling her fingers in Sally's grip despite the shooting pain that flooded up her arm.  

"Sally!"

She turned around, seeing Quatre run though the doorway and over the rubble.  

"Quatre, HELP!" Sally called out to him, still holding Cathy's broken fingers.  

He stripped off his jacket and pulled off his tie as he unbuttoned the top button of his dress shirt.  He needed to loosen his shirt in order to move efficiently to save Cathy.  "I heard you yelling from the conference room.  I came as soon as I could."  Quatre heaved another block of stone away from the pile around Cathy.

One large sheet of wall held Catherine to the floor.  Sally still held on to Cathy's hand, trying to comfort her as Quatre wedged his shoulder under the last large piece of rubble.  With all his strength, Quatre lifted the wall as Sally pulled on Cathy's hand, slowly sliding her out from under the wreckage.  

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Wufei recovered from his shock before Trowa and Duo.  He left his mobile suit behind and went running toward the rubble of the palace.  Slipping on the unsteady rock, Wufei scrambled up the nearest pile of ruin.  Trowa joined him shortly, placing a hand on his shoulder.  Wufei wasn't sure if Trowa put that hand there to comfort him or to comfort himself.  He heard more scrambling sounds.  Duo was standing on the other side of him.

"Oh my God," Duo whispered, not believing the scene of wreckage lying before them.  Parts of the building foundation reached up into the air, like dying men reaching out as they take their last breath.  Roof tiles littered the gardens, the radius of broken tile extending a hundred yards from the original boundaries of the palace walls.  Duo had never seen such destruction.

Wufei had.  Unexpectedly, he remembered the scene of his wife's death.  The stench of fires and the dust of fallen buildings reminded him of his walk through what used to be their home.  He remembered searching for her through the rubble of their kitchen, where she used to smile as she cooked his breakfast in the mornings, and in their bedroom, where he heard her laugh before they slept at night.  The memories flooded over him, reminding him of everything he'd lost before deciding to become a Gundam pilot.  And now he was in danger of losing everything he'd gained since becoming a Gundam pilot.  He was in danger of losing a good friend.  

Trowa's grip on his shoulder tightened, drawing Wufei out of his memories and back to the present.  He hadn't been aware of shedding any tears, until the wind blew across the tracks of wetness on his cheek, chilling where his tears had fallen.  Wufei reached up to wipe them away, trying to keep his composure in front of his friends.  He looked down at his hand, streaked with the wetness of his tears and the dust from the collapse of the building.  

Keeping composure was futile, he decided.  Giving in to his own fears and uncertainties, he reached out for comfort, laying his hand on Duo's shoulder.  Wufei was sure they looked ridiculous: a chain of three ex-Gundam pilots – Trowa holding onto Wufei's shoulder and Wufei holding onto Duo's.  But right now, he didn't care.  If something had happened to Heero, or to Quatre, their camaraderie would be the only insurance of their own survival.

He squeezed Duo's shoulder a little to give a signal that they should stop standing around and start searching for the bodies.  Wufei was caught off guard as Duo rushed into him, his friend burying his head in Wufei's shoulder and holding him tight.  Wufei returned the embrace, feeling the moisture of Duo's own tears through his light shirt.  

"Come on, Duo," he spoke softly.  "We might be able to help them."

"Yea," Duo answered, his voice muffled from being buried in Wufei.  Duo sniffed loudly and pulled away from Wufei, keeping his head down to hide his tears.  He turned away and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.  

"We'll find them," Wufei spoke to Duo's back.  "Think of how many times Heero's died before…he's sure to survive this too."  Wufei gave a feeble smile.

It worked.  Duo turned back around, smiling despite the gloomy situation.  "Yea," he agreed.  "Heero's one hard sucker to kill."

Trowa nodded at his friends, then started picking his way toward the left and down into the center of the blast.  Wufei walked straight ahead, and Duo began looking to the right.

They would find Heero.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Quatre held Catherine in his arms as Sally looked her over.  Surprisingly, Cathy was relatively unscathed.  She had a few cuts and bruises, but no major injuries, save for that one broken hand.  Sally turned the hand over tenderly, trying not to induce any further injuries or pain for Cathy.  Cathy wouldn't be able to throw knives for a while, Sally thought.  She'd broken a bone in her wrist, two carpals, and one finger.  

Not bad for having a wall fall on you, Sally thought as she wrapped Cathy's hand in some stiff gauze.  "I can't reset these bones here, Cathy," she said.  "We'll have to go to a lab where we can give you some anesthetics and set them properly with a cast."

Cathy just nodded, her eyes shut tight as she tried to control the pain.  

Quatre felt it.  He tried to take the pain from her, to feel it himself so that she could feel more at ease, but it was hard work and there was only so much he could handle.  He wrapped his arms tighter around the girl sitting in his lap, trying to give her all the support and comfort he could spare.  

Relena was close by, as was Noin and Hilde.  They had all been in the conference room at the other end of the palace, in the east wing.  The members of the Executive Counsel had all dispersed after the bombing and gone home to safer quarters.  

"Quatre," Sally got his attention.  "We need to take her to a hospital."  

"I know," he said, standing up and setting Catherine on her feet.  "Go ahead and take her.  I'll go and check on the guys.  They should be alri…"  Quatre broke off in mid-sentence.  His head snapped up and he looked Sally directly in the eyes.  "Heero and Jinx were in the building!" he screamed, finally realizing why none of the pilots had come inside to check on them.  

He didn't wait for any reactions from Relena or the other girls.  Quatre raced through the hallways of the palace, heading toward the first door leading to the gardens.  

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Trowa covered his mouth with one hand, not wanting to believe what he saw.  Blood covered the rocks at his feet, revealing human body parts nearby.  


	11. Finding Hope

DISCLAIMER – I do not own Gundam Wing.

Chapter 11 

Trowa suppressed the urge to throw up and add more bodily fluids to the ruins under his feet.  The smell of blood, burning flesh, and other unspeakable odors was too much to bear.  It made him wish they'd taken the time to grab some gas masks, or even particle masks, something to keep this horrible smell from overcoming him.  To minimize the scent, he took a deep breath with his open mouth, tasting the human stench instead of smelling it.  

He bent down and heaved the bloodstained pieces of wall to the side, revealing more burned and unidentifiable body parts on the ground.  Trowa closed his eyes for a moment, collecting his nerve.  Then he climbed down closer to the remains of the body, searching for a clue as to who it was.  And luckily, he found something rather quickly, without having to rummage through the gross organs to find it.  

Holding the strip of fabric delicately between too fingers, Trowa inspected the insignia halfway covered by blood and other things he couldn't begin to explain.  He sighed in relief.  The body parts he'd uncovered belonged to someone wearing an OZ flight suit – not Heero or Jinx.  He decided to keep the scrap of material, to show the other pilots later.  It might be useful in determining who broke into the palace and who was responsible for the bombing.

Trowa continued searching the ruins.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

"Quatre, wait!" Catherine's delicate voice called to him, stopping him from leaving the palace and going outside.  He heard desperation in her voice.

Slowing to a stop at the doorway leading to the gardens, Quatre turned around, seeing that Catherine had followed him to the receiving room.  Her sprite-like frame was leaning against the arm of a large couch.  He couldn't help but smile at her.

"What is it, Cathy?" he asked, crossing the room to stand closer to her.

"Its just that I…" she looked down at her feet, suddenly ashamed of the way Quatre was staring intently into her eyes.  "I just wanted to say thank you, before you ran off to help them."

"Thank you?  For what?" 

"For helping me."  She shifted her position against the couch, trying to be comfortable in a completely nerve-racing situation.  "For caring."

Quatre walked closer to her, gathering her in his strong arms.  "Of course I'll help you, Cathy," he explained, brushing some of the curly auburn hair from her face.  She looked up at him, her ice blue eyes full of hope.  "I don't need any thanks from you.  Always, I will help you because I care about you."

Catherine's eyes returned to gazing at the floor as a slight blush formed on her cheeks.  "I care about you, too, Quatre," she said, not looking up.

She felt his fingertips graze her jawline and lift her chin so that she could look at him again.  His turquoise eyes held a sparkle that she hadn't noticed before.  Maybe because she hadn't noticed how much she wanted him before.  Her head swam as he leaned down, giving her a mere polite kiss on the lips.  

He remained the perfect gentleman, no matter how much he wanted to ravage her mouth with his own.  And no matter how strongly he felt from her that she wanted him to kiss her passionately, with all feeling they'd developed for each other since that day he'd come to see Trowa.  Since that first day they'd met each other, Quatre had dreamed of this moment.  

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Duo rummaged through the wreckage of the palace, stopping to hold a piece of a picture or an article of clothing.  The smoke burned in his lungs and made it difficult to breathe, as if knowing that his friends were buried under this rubble didn't already make it too difficult for him to function properly.  

He wasn't doing any good out here.  Climbing to a higher point of the rubble, he looked out over the wreckage to find Wufei and Trowa.  Trowa was bending down over something, holding a hand over his nose and mouth as if something smelled too foul for him to handle.  Duo did not want to go over there and see the dead bodies of his friends, if that was what Trowa had found.  Trowa might be strong enough to act rationally about all this, but Duo wasn't.  

Far to his right, Wufei was bending down over something as well, and seemed to be brushing debris off of something.  Wufei was smiling.  Why was he smiling through all of this?  Suddenly, the Chinese man's head popped up and looked around, searching for something.  Duo couldn't hear him call, but he saw Wufei cup one hand around his mouth, and he saw the mouth open and close.  He was definitely trying to get Duo's attention, so Duo obliged and made his way over to where Wufei was crouched on the ground.  

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Wufei had thought it was hopeless, when he and the other two pilots began their search to find Heero and Jinx.  There was no way they could have survived though an explosion like that.  

Yet, here he was, standing over a live, breathing person.  Duo was on his way over from where he had been trying to collect his thoughts.  Duo didn't seem too stable during all of this, he noted, and witnessing this would help out tremendously.

"Wufei…" the strained voice called from below him.

"Hush, Heero," Wufei said as he moved back down close to his friend.  "You need to keep your strength up.  You have to heal after all this."  He put his hand on Heero's forehead.  Wufei had never really been sure what medical purpose putting a hand on someone's forehead accomplished, but he assumed it was more useful as a measure of comfort than medicine.  

"Jinx…"

"We haven't found her, Heero."

Heero's closed eyes shut even tighter, trying to block out the visions he saw of Jinx's dead body.  He was trying to block out everything.

"You're the first person we've found, Heero."  Wufei saw the pain that echoed in his own heart.  He was too familiar with the pain of loosing a loved one.  "Give it time, we have to keep searching."

"Everyone else?" Heero's raspy voice asked.

"I don't know," Wufei admitted, trying as much as he could to give emotional comfort to Heero.  Telling him of the devastation wasn't the best to do in his condition, but Heero deserved to know the truth.  "Trowa, Duo, and I were outside, working on the suits when it went off.  We don't know where anyone else is, but we assume they're ok.  Quatre, Relena, and everyone else should have been in the east wing, conferencing on what to do about the OZ base.  Planning an offensive."

"I hope they're alright."  Heero could feel his conscious fading.  This time, he didn't fight it.

Duo arrived shortly after, knocking Wufei over with the hug he'd wanted to give to Heero.  Too bad Heero was passed out, or he could suffer the choking hold of the Shinigami himself, Wufei thought.  

"It's alright, Duo," he said into Duo's hair, trying to pry the overzealous pilot off of him.  "Heero needs help.  We have to get him inside to Sally."

Duo sniffed and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.  This time, Wufei was pleased to note, these were tears of joy instead of tears of sorrow. 

Carefully, the boys lifted their friend and carried him into the palace.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Quatre closed the car door and waved, sending Catherine and Hilde off to the hospital.  Since they were going to a medical station, Sally saw little point in her accompanying them, especially since there still may be a need for her in the palace.  She was better as a field operative, she had told him.

He stood, watching the car holding beautiful Cathy as it disappeared over the ridge, heading toward town.  Not until he was certain it was out of sight did he turn and head back into the palace.  He had to check and see what was going on with the other pilots, and he feared the worst for Heero and Jinx.

Walking back into the palace, he heard Relena's high-pitched whining from the entryway.  It was going to be a long day, he sighed, feeling her desperation and anger mixed with Wufei's sorrow, Duo's relief, and someone else's physical pain.  At times, being an empath was more than he wanted.  Now was one of those times.

"What the hell did you idiots do?" Relena screamed, not expecting or wanting an answer to that question.  "Aren't you supposed to protect each other, be there for each other, and protect me!?  WHY IN THE HELL DID SOMEONE BREAK INTO THE PALACE AND BLOW IT UP!!?"  

As Quatre rounded the corner to the main receiving room and the closest room to the back gardens of the palace, he saw Relena as she screamed standing face to chest with Wufei.

Wufei was not one to take your anger out on, Quatre thought, watching the expression of the usually stoic Chinese face start to distort as he lost his reservation.  He'll hit her if she doesn't watch it.  

"What kind of friends are you?  Why did you let this happen?  Aren't you ashamed of yourself for allowing one of your best friends to be come injured and possibly killed because of your incompetence?  How dishonorable…"

"You had better not finish that sentence," Quatre warned her from behind.  Wufei's hand was raised, ready to strike her for insulting not only the Gundam pilots but his competence and honor as well.  Slowly, the hand returned to Wufei's side.  "Of all people, Relena," Quatre continued, "you are the last to be speaking of honor."

Relena turned to glare at Quatre.  "And you!" she screamed, pointing at him and fiercely poking him in the chest.  "How dare you scold me!  If it weren't for you and your friends bringing that _girl_ here to my home, none of this would have happened.  I always knew your kindness was your weakness, Quatre, and now it's proven.  You should have let that girl die in Duo's place."

"Relena," Duo's voice was harsh as he stopped her current onslaught of verbal assault.  "If you ever speak that way of her again, I'll kill you myself.  And her name is Jinx, not 'that girl'."  

Quatre's attention was finally drawn to that side of the room, where Heero was laid out on the coffee table.  Duo was next to him, on his knees and holding one of Heero's hands.  Sally was on the opposite side of the table from Duo, leaning over Heero and trying to stop multiple wounds from bleeding at the same time.  She was overwhelmed.  He pushed Relena aside and made his way to Heero.  

"She is a jinx to all of us," Relena snarled.

Wufei had had enough.  He grabbed Relena's wrist firmly in one hand, making her cry out in pain and surprise.  She screamed at him beating his arm and chest as he dragged her across the room and tossed her into a coat closet.  Wufei slammed the door on her and placed a chair under the knob, effectively locking Relena in the closet.

Kneeling at the head of the coffee table, Quatre placed a hand on either side of Heero's face, trying to comfort him in a way only an empath can.  He tried to take some of his pain.  

Heero wouldn't let him.  Even in his unconsciousness, Heero was as unable to reach as he was in real life.  That gave Quatre some hope.  It meant Heero was feeling rather well, despite the pitiful condition his body was in.

Sally worked hard on Heero, wrapping gauze around many wounds and trying to soothe the burns on his neck, shoulder and back.  Unfortunately, Heero hadn't had a shirt on during the blast, and the explosion instantly burned much of his exposed torso.  But on the good side, Sally found, the wounds were rather shallow and only a few areas of his shoulder contained more than superficial burns.  Knowing Heero, he'd heal easily from this.   

Quatre joined in her efforts to bandage Heero.  

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Trowa continued to search the rubble, hoping against all logic and reason that he would find Jinx.  He had watched as Duo and Wufei worked together to carry Heero off.  And Duo seemed in too good of a mood for Heero to be dead, so that left some hope that Jinx had survived as well.  Then again, he had to keep Heero's track record in mind.  Heero's died five or six times by now, if you count his recent freezing to death.  The fact that Heero was alive made no guarantee that Jinx was too.  

But then again, she was the female version of the perfect soldier, Trowa reminded himself, allowing his mind to roam as his body roamed over the ruins of the west wing.  She had survived the Siberian night as well.  And she was well known to have cheated death among the OZ soldiers, who talked about the deeds of the Plague even though none of them had ever seen or met her.  Trowa had picked up on some of the rumors about her when he was working for OZ during his infiltration years ago on the lunar base.

She was supposed to be invincible.  Tales told of how she could pop bones into place with her bare hands, after surviving a bombing assassination of this world leader or that world leader.  Jinx liked explosives, he recalled.  She developed most of her bombs personally, which made them impossible to detect or duplicate. 

But Jinx was also supposed to be an excellent mind reader and mimic, which gave her the ability to live in complete stealth.  No one ever knew when they ran across the Plague, some of the OZ soldiers said, unless she told them before she killed them.

Trowa shook his head as he searched.  She was so much like Heero, it was scary.  One perfect soldier was bad enough, but having two?  He wasn't sure if he liked the idea.  But Duo seemed to like her, just as he liked Heero despite his cold qualities.  And if Duo liked someone, they were usually a good person to know.  After all, Duo liked all the Gundam pilots.  And over the years, regardless of the occasional stretches of time during which they didn't keep in touch, they had become family.  The greatest family Trowa had ever known, other than Cathy.  The battalions he was a part of before, and even the circus, couldn't compete to the camaraderie the pilots shared.  

If Heero and Duo wanted Jinx to be a part of their life as a family, then Trowa was more than willing to forget her past and accept her.  He just had to find her first.

 Luckily, Trowa caught a glimpse of black hair.  Making his way over to that area, Jinx's whole body came into view.  

Trowa looked up into the sky of the fading afternoon and thanked whatever gods he could come up with for her body being in one piece.  

Without stopping to check for a pulse or her breathing, because he figured that it didn't really matter whether she was alive or not, he held her gently in his arms and climbed over the wreckage toward the undamaged area in the middle of the palace.  


	12. Dreams and Memories

DISCLAIMER – I do not own Gundam Wing.

Chapter Twelve 

She sat in the pilot seat of the mobile suit she'd been issued, looking around at the monitors for signs of attack.  They were positioned around Colony L2-D89, attempting to ward off an oncoming offensive by the Earth Sphere Alliance.  It was her first battle.  Jinx was nervous, relying on her training and instincts to get her through this.  At the age of 9, she had never before killed anyone.  This would be her first time.

A warm voice came over the radio.  It was Schaffer.  "Breathe deep, honey," he said, smiling on the monitor.  Schaffer was her commanding officer, immediately above her in the ranks of OZ military.  And Schaffer was her best friend, regardless of the fact that he was ten years older than her.  While she stayed in the military base, the young girl was exposed to all sorts of possible disreputable acts by fellow soldiers.  Schaffer had been there to take care of her and chase off the less than innocent friendships of other men, though she had never been a victim of foul play, yet.  He was her only friend and had a habit of calling her 'little sis' when he was sure no one else could hear them.  

She smiled at the blond man looking concerned on the monitor.  "I'm fine, Schaffer.  Just nervous."  

"Take it easy, little sis.  This little skirmish shouldn't result in much."

Jinx nodded at him, clicking off the inter-suit communication.  Immediately, something squawked in her ear, warning her of approaching objects.  Pulling at the controls, she swiveled her suit around to face the mobile suits coming at the colony.  She swore under her breath.  The controls of the suit were heavy for her.  Even though she had been trained extensively in combat and mental conditioning, she was still a nine-year-old girl and a little too weak to skillfully maneuver the cumbersome suit under her control.  

The three approaching suits opened fire, aiming directly for the closest of their enemies.  That closest enemy just happened to be her.  She noticed a kind of scream over the radio, like Schaffer was saying something to her, but she didn't have the time to pay attention to it now.  Jinx had to fire back at the enemy suits.

Skillfully and perfectly, Jinx fired three shots.  Three separate explosions told of her successful battle against the suits that attacked her.  

She remembered the scream earlier, and turned around in time to see Schaffer's suit as it careened out of control, badly damaged on the left side.  Schaffer had been hit.  He was falling toward the gravity of the colony, too far away for Jinx to save him.  The side of the colony expelled a fireball at the collision, engulfing what remained of Schaffer and his suit.

Jinx screamed something unintelligible, sending shivers down the spines of anyone who happened to hear her over the communicator.  

She didn't remember returning to base and going to her quarters, but she knew she did.  Jinx did it out of habit, rather than out of consciousness.  She was lying face down on her bed, her head buried in her pillow to stop the tears that threatened to sting her eyes.  Losing Schaffer was too much.  She did not want to kill, not if it meant friends would die alongside her.  

The door closed softly behind her, startling her from her sorrow.  Colonel Sterling was standing in front of her closed door.  She cursed herself again, for not paying more mental attention to what was going on around her.  She should have known that he was coming down the hall, much less standing in her own room.

Jinx sat up on the bed, looking at the large and burly man as he took a few steps closer to her.  "You're leaving first thing in the morning," he informed her.  "We can't have weaklings on the front line."

She flinched at the remark.  In all her days as a soldier, since before she could even hold a gun, no one had ever called her a weakling.  His mind was blocked to her.

He continued, "They're going to put you through more hell than you could ever imagine, Plague.  You deserve it after letting Schaffer die." 

Turning away from him, Jinx stared at the steel gray wall.  She didn't want to hear anymore.  It was all her fault.  Her brother was dead because of her.  Weight beside her on the bed informed her that he was sitting next to her on the light mattress.  His large, strong hand touched her shoulder.

In that touch, everything became clear.  Through physical contact, she had complete access to his mind.  And his devious thoughts.  She felt his lust, and his anger.  She felt his inner turmoil – whether he wanted to rape her or kill her, he couldn't decide.  It was evil.  Pure evil.

She ran to the door, rushing against it, trying to open it.

"No use," Sterling said, his voice deep and husky.  "I've encoded it to my own voice, and it will remain locked until I say otherwise."  She turned around, her back against the door like a trapped animal.  Shrinking as he got up and walked closer to her, Jinx watched in horror as he looked around her room.  "Good thing these walls are soundproof," he said, a wicked grin spreading across his face.

The large hand grasped her throat, making it difficult for her to breathe, or fight back.

His evil laughter echoed through her head.

Again she heard the evil chuckles, but this time they weren't from her memories of that night.  She was hearing them emerge from her own throat.  Jinx calmly stepped back, avoiding Sterling's blood as it pooled and ran across the floor.  Her first assassination was successful.  Sterling's body was slumped over his desk, his blood running from the neat bullet hole that pierced through his flesh to his heart.

Three years ago, he had violated her.  He branded her himself afterwards, with the sign of OZ Special Forces, and then he had sent her off to the most ruthless training known in the military.  Later, her commander had added the Assassin insignia to her bare left shoulder, directly under the physical scar Sterling had left.  And now, she had her revenge.  

He had been right, she mused as she walked away from the target's cooling body.  Her next training assignment had been hell, and now she was as stone cold as they had dreamed her to be.  She was the perfect soldier.  And with her vengeful virgin assassination over with, she had proved herself ruthless and taken out her aggression on her own attacker.  Justice has been served.

Then why did she feel so empty?

In the dark of the night, she could still feel his hands pressing her down against the lightweight mattress.  She cried out for him to stop.

*

Jinx cried out again in her sleep, violently shaking from side to side as if she were trying to escape something.  Trowa held her shoulders gently, attempting to calm her with the sound of his voice and keep her from falling off the bed.  

"NO!  DON'T TOUCH ME!!" she screamed, her face showing terror as she recoiled from the attacker in her dream.

"Jinx…wake up, Jinx.  It's me, Trowa, your friend."  He tried everything he could think of to shake her from the nightmare, but it wasn't working.  She continued to writhe beneath his grasp, mistaking his hands for the hands of a villain.  "Jinx," he called softly, for what seemed like the hundredth time.

She'd been having this violent nightmare for several minutes, but those few minutes dragged out to hours in Trowa's mind.  Heero was too injured and weak to heed Jinx's screaming words in the bed next to his.  Trowa glanced back at the couch, at the sleeping form of Duo.  He too, was too tired and weary from the exhaustion of the bombing to be disturbed by Jinx's repetitive screaming.  But this luck wouldn't last too much longer, Trowa thought, and soon they'd all be awake because of her yelling in her nightmare.

"Stop!" the bloodcurdling scream ended as she sat straight up in bed, her eyes wide with terror.  Sitting up so quickly had caused her to hit her forehead against Trowa's, and both of them were now rubbing their sore heads.  "Ow," she said simply after a moment, still touching her tender forehead.

"I'm sorry," Trowa admitted, backing away from her bed to the chair he'd placed between Heero's bed and hers.  "I shouldn't have been that close to you."

The light returned to Jinx's eyes as she realized she had been dreaming.  "Oh, Trowa," she said as she shifted to a more comfortable sitting position.  "I'm so sorry for…I didn't realize I was dreaming."  Jinx's face looked uncomfortable in the darkness as she glanced away from the emerald eye and instead looked down at the sheets around her.  "I thought those dreams would stop," she admitted, wrapping her arms around herself in an attempt to feel comfort.

"They never do."

"What?" she asked, thoroughly confused.

"Those types of dreams never go away, Jinx.  They never go away."  Trowa had a far-off look in his eyes as he spoke to her.  "The pain of your past will live with you always.  There's no escaping the events that have made you become the person you are today.  No matter how much you want to forget the horrible things that have happened."

He knew, she decided.  Somehow, he knew exactly what she had been remembering in her dream.  

"But they make you who you are," he continued, looking at the peaceful sleeping Duo curled on the couch.  "It made Duo the wonderful person he is."

"You mean?"

"There isn't much of a choice for orphans," Trowa explained.  "As part of a group, he had to do his part to pull in some money for food and clothing.  There wasn't any other choice…and he did whatever he had to in order to protect the other children."

Jinx looked at how the moonlight of the window fell across Duo's gentle features.  His bangs hung haphazardly across his face, and his body was curled into an impossibly small ball on the couch cushion.  It was hard to imagine that this happy-go-lucky wonderful man ever had to sell himself as a child in order to survive on the streets.  

She looked again at Trowa, who had a sad look in his visible eye.  "But Trowa…?"

"Yes, I am the same as you."  He stood up and sat on the edge of her bed, taking on of her hands in between his own two large and gentle hands.  "It makes us who we are.  And we are stronger for having survived it."  Trowa leaned forward and gave her a kiss on the forehead.  

Instinctively, she wrapped her arms around his neck, seeking comfort in his arms.  Trowa hugged her gently for a moment, then pulled away and brushed some of the stray hairs from her eyes.  "Just know that you aren't ever alone, Jinx."  

*

When Duo awoke, Jinx was sitting up in bed and looking toward the doorway.  He unwound his curled body and stretched his limbs.  "Whatcha looking at?" he asked in a whisper.  Heero was still asleep.

Jinx blinked and looked down to him, her sorrow painfully evident on her beautiful face.  "Nothing that can be cured," she mystically said to him, not offering any more of an explanation.  

This was his cue.  Duo got up off the couch and sat on the edge of Jinx's bed.  She needed some major comforting.  Gently, he placed a hand on the bulge of the sheets that concealed her knee.  "Is there something I can do?"

Tears suddenly fell uncontrollably from her eyes as her body softly shook from her sobs.  "I can't tell him," she managed to say between breaths.  

"Tell who?" Duo asked, getting closer to put an arm around her shoulders.

Jinx leaned her forehead into his chest, and he began running his fingers over her hair as she prepared to talk to him.  

"I can't tell Heero."  

Duo continued to run his hands through her hair.

"I can't tell him that I'm…I'm…. tainted."  She barely whispered loud enough for Duo to make out her words.  

"You aren't the only one," Duo offered.  "Many of us have pasts that we wish we could forget, or get rid of.  But those pasts are what make us who we are."

Jinx smiled in spite of her tears.  "Trowa said the exact same thing earlier."  

"He did?  Well, I guess that's because I heard it from him years ago.  And I suppose he told you about himself?"

She shook her head, no, which felt strange against his chest.  

"Then what did he say?" Duo asked, confused.

"He hold me about you."

Duo twitched a little, uneasy with the fact that Trowa had told Jinx about his past.  He wasn't so uncomfortable that she knew, just that he hadn't been the one to tell her.  "Well, I'm not the only one," Duo pouted.

"What do you mean?  What happened to Trowa?"

"They used to call him Nanashi…"

"No-name?  Why?"

Duo sighed and shifted his weight to get more comfortable.  "Nanashi worked on L3, and became part of the military service there after his mother died.  He was young and had no family left when he joined.  Those other servicemen had been out in training for too long, and they welcomed the fresh meat of new recruits.  Trowa said that it felt like a prison when new recruits arrived, the screaming and…" Duo let his voice fade out, not wanting to say the horrible words of his friend's past.  This common past of having their innocence taken from them when they were just boys was the strongest link he had with Trowa.  It gave them a connection that he didn't share with Wufei, Quatre, or even Heero.  Of course, neither one of them mentioned it since that night Trowa had held Duo in his arms, trying to calm the longhaired boy after he had woken Trowa up during a frightful nightmare.  Duo was sure Trowa held Jinx earlier that night in the same way Trowa had held him those years ago.  And tonight was the first time either of them had thought of mentioning their past out loud again.

Jinx's arms wrapped around Duo's waist, dragging him from his thoughts.  She was looking up at him, her red eyes glowing in the moonlight and fresh tears making them sparkle.  He smiled down at her, putting his arms around her shoulders.  Jinx scooted closer to him, resting her head on his shoulder.  

"I'm too afraid to tell him.  But I think he already knows.  It's just too hard to push those memories out of my mind when I feel Heero's hands on me.  I keep thinking that they're _his_."  She shuddered involuntarily at the thought of Colonel Sterling.  "I know Heero would never do anything to hurt me.  That's why he doesn't object when I get scared and tell him to stop."

Duo's brows knitted in confusion.  "You mean you and Heero…?"

"We haven't been able to…not yet.  It just brings back such horrible memories."  Jinx began to sniff a little as she talked about how she felt.  Not until she met Heero did she have to face the aftermath of surviving her rape experience.  And now she realized that it would take a lot more healing and gentle love from Heero for her to be able to live a normal life.  She hadn't been as strong as she tricked herself into thinking she was.

Duo held her tightly as she cried quietly against his shoulder.  Soon, her sobbing resided and Duo heard her breath come easier and deeper.  He nudged her, getting a light and sleepy moan in return.  She had fallen asleep.  

Trying not to wake her, Duo carefully laid her down on the bed without letting her leave his arms.  Curled up next to her, Duo pulled the blankets over them both and succumbed to the sleep that threatened his consciousness.  


	13. Back to Routine

DISCLAIMER – I do not own Gundam Wing Chapter Thirteen 

Heero forced himself to open his eyes and rouse his body from sleep, regardless of the throbbing pain that threatened to burst out of his head.  Taking a deep breath to calm his headache, Heero rolled over on the cot set up in Relena's billiards room. 

A light bed was set up next to his cot, not but a foot away from his.  The warm wool blanket was pulled up to her chin, and Heero could barely see the top of Jinx's head and dark hair from behind the thick covers.  As he looked at what little he could see of her, Heero noticed a lighter brown braid that peaked out from beneath the blankets.  Carefully, he sat up slowly so as not to disturb his headache any more than necessary.  From this position, he could make out the other lump in the blankets.  That lump named Duo.  

Heero's eyes narrowed as he gazed upon his best friend in bed with Jinx.  But then his expression softened.  He recalled hearing her screaming in the night, and no matter how hard he tried, he was unable to wake himself up to comfort her.  Duo must have been there, he reasoned slowly, trying not to jump to false conclusions.  He must have held her and stopped her crying.  

As he shifted his position, his leg lightly bumped into something on the edge of the cot.  Heero looked down, seeing Jinx's hand gripping the frame rail of the cot.  Her grip was so tight that even in sleep her hand remained securely fastened to his bed.  He brushed his fingers over her knuckles.  That proved it.  Jinx may have accepted comfort from Duo, but she still reached out to have Heero.  Literally.

Stiff from resting for so long, Heero stretched, fully extending every part of his body was far as it would reach in every possible direction.  It felt painfully good to work his muscles like that.  After his catlike procedure, he gently unhooked Jinx's hand from the rail of his bed and slid it back under the warm covers of her own bed.  

Jinx stirred in her sleep from the movement, which in turn, made Duo stir in his sleep.  Duo was the first to wake fully, sitting up on the bed and looking guilty after he noticed Heero.  

Duo smiled at pilot 01, ashamed at having slept next to Jinx last night. He didn't mean to stay there.  Only until she was comfortably asleep, and then he would have left and gone back to the couch.  

"Hey man," he whispered, not wanting to look Heero in the eyes.

"Morning," Heero answered.  "Sleep well?"

Duo showed his discomfort by rubbing the back of his neck with one hand, unsuccessfully trying to knead the knots he felt there.  "Truthfully, no.  She had a nightmare last night."

"I figured that out when I saw you here," Heero admitted.  Inwardly, he breathed a sigh of relief and was happy that his reasoning had been correct.  

Jinx moaned a little as she groggily opened her eyes.  "Heero," she said softly too him as she focused on the person in front of her.  The same hand he'd returned to her side came out from under the blankets, reaching for him.

He took her hand in his and bent down to kiss it.  "Good morning," he told her as he moved the blanket away from her face and brushed the hair out of her eyes.  "How do you feel?"

She stretched out her legs and stretched while still laying on the bed, her back pushing against Duo's knee.  "Been better."  Noticing the knee in her back, Jinx lazily raised one arm above her and reached around behind her to see what was there.  Her fingertips came in contact with Duo's chest and she moaned out Duo's name before pulling her hand back and curling up into a tighter ball on the bed.  

Heero moved closer, leaning over her on the bed.  He took a grasp of her shoulder and gently shook her a little.  "Come on, Jinx, we need to get up.  I'm sure everyone's worried about you.  Let's go show them that we're ok."

"Mm kay," she replied in a childish voice.  Heero grabbed a hold of her offered hands and pulled her up to a seating position on the bed with her legs dangling off the edge.  

Sally must have dressed her in clean clothes, he noted.  Jinx was now wearing pajama pants that tied around her waist and a simple white over shirt.  Now that he thought about it, Heero looked down at his own body, noticing that was wearing similar garb.  Slowly, he let his eyes roam over her, overwhelmed by the fact that they were both alive and relatively unscathed save for a few burns on his back and her shoulder and arm.  

Jinx noticed Heero looking her over, and smiled to cover her slight blush.  "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he said, smiling wider than Duo had ever seen the stoic Perfect Soldier smile.  "I'm just happy."

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

The first thing Wufei noticed when Duo, Heero, and Jinx walked into the breakfast room was the silly smile on Heero's face.  The second thing he noticed was that Heero held Jinx's hand as they walked.  Strange, he thought, since Duo slept in the same bed with her last night.  

Wufei remembered how Relena had run into the breakfast room earlier that morning, giddy and talking fast about how Heero was available.  Nonsense, Trowa told her sternly, insisting that Heero and Jinx were together.  Not true, she grinned at him, not true at all.  Just look, she said, Heero's on one bed, Jinx and _Duo_ are together on the other.  Together.  Trowa just shook his head, with a sympathetic look in his eye, while everyone else crept to the doorway of the billiards room.  They all peaked inside, and there they were: Duo under the blankets with Jinx while Heero rested on the other bed next to them.  

And now here they were: smiling at each other while Jinx held onto Heero's hand and not Duo's.  Wufei wondered what was going on between these three.  Was that woman messing everything up between two friends?  Then Wufei remembered, Trowa spoke to him and Quatre of her nightmares last night, though Trowa never mentioned what had caused her to cry out in her sleep so violently.  Duo must have crawled into bed beside her to comfort her and keep her quiet.  

Heero moved a chair closer to Jinx's at the table, and Duo sat down on the opposite side.  Relena was getting upset.  

"What's going on?" she asked forcefully, stopping everyone from shoving their latest forkful into their mouths.  "What is wrong with you, Heero?"

"I'm afraid I don't understand, Relena," he replied calmly.

"Yes you do, Heero.  Last night that _girl_ slept with Duo, and now you're the one holding her hand?  What's going on?" Relena asked, planting her hands on the table and standing up.  

A sly smile crept across Heero's face as he considered playing a cruel joke on Relena.  What the hell? he thought to himself.  I might as well do it.  "What's the problem with that, Relena?" Heero said with an innocent tone of voice.  "Duo and I are best friends."

"But Heero," she insisted, "Duo _slept_ with her last night.  I came in there this morning and saw them still curled up together.  Doesn't that bother you?"  

"Why should it?  Duo and I are _best friends_.  That means we share everything together. Absolutely everything."  He leaned over and gave Jinx a kiss on the cheek to clue Relena in to what he meant by 'everything'.  

Duo had to keep a hand over his mouth, pretending to eat something, in order to stifle the outburst of laughter he felt welling up inside of him.  Wufei, too, had to look away from Relena's surprised face to keep from laughing and spoiling the joke.  Even Trowa's mouth curled at the edges as he fought the urge to smile at their naïve and gullible hostess.  

Relena spun around and glared at Duo, once she regained some composure.  "Duo Maxwell, is this true?"  

"Of course, Relena," he said, fighting harder than ever to keep from laughing.  "Heero doesn't make a habit of lying."  

Sally's giggling could be heard from his right where she sat at the table.  Hilde, too, seemed to be in on the joke and had to keep a hand over her mouth.  Only Relena fell victim to Heero's uncharacteristic trickery.

"And Relena," Duo continued, relaxing into his part of the intrigue and pretending to be more serious.  "Didn't I tell you never to call her 'that girl' again?"  He stood up from the table and took a few menacing steps in Relena's direction.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Relena nearly plowed into Quatre and Catherine as they made their way to the room behind the kitchen.  Confused by the upset and panicking girl who ran past them and to her quarters, Quatre led Cathy to the breakfast room and walked into a room filled with outbursts of laughter.

Wufei and Sally were hugging each other for support as they laughed, trying not to fall onto the ground.  Duo and Hilde had already fallen and were attempting to climb back into their chairs as their eyes teared.  Jinx had her head down on the table as she laughed, trying to find composure but failing each time she recalled the look on Relena's face.  Oddly, even Trowa was laughing out loud.  Heero just sat back, a broad smile on his features, with his arms crossed over his chest in pride.

"What's going on?" Quatre called to Heero, trying to be heard over the hullabaloo what was known as 'his friends'.  

"Just a joke on Relena," Heero answered.  The laughter was dying down and Duo helped collect Hilde from the floor and sat her back into her chair.  "Where have you been?"

Quatre shook his head, knowing that Duo would fill him in on the juicy details later on.  "Went to pick up Cathy from the hospital.  She'd broken her hand yesterday and they wanted her to stay overnight to make sure there weren't any complications from the bombing – smoke inhalation or what not."  He pulled out a chair next to Trowa, offering it to Catherine.  She sat next to her brother, a slight blush on her cheeks after Trowa raised an eyebrow at her.  Quatre, too, blushed a little now that the attention was turned on his and Cathy's return from the hospital.  

Duo clapped Quatre on the shoulder as he walked behind the Arabian to get more food from the kitchen.  "Glad you're here to take care of the ladies, Quatre.  What would we do without you to take care of the lovely Cathy?"

"You'd take care of her yourself, Duo," Quatre retorted, a little embarrassed now that everyone seemed to know he liked Catherine.  

Duo shook his head vigorously as he came back from grabbing something in the kitchen.  "Nope," he said lightheartedly.  "Heero and I have our hands full sharing that one."  He gestured in Jinx's general direction.

Wufei spit out his milk, and the whole room erupted again into uncontrollable laughter.  

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Heero was busy teaching Jinx everything he knew about the cockpit of her mobile suit.  She was in the pilot's seat, taking in every word he said.  Heero was sitting on the floor between her legs, turning his torso around to face her while his legs dangled out of the open cockpit.  

Wufei was putting the finishing touches on his new thermal weapon – a type of curved sword with streaks of energy along the blade.  The Arabic-like sword was about half as long as Wufei's mobile suit was tall.  

Trowa had succeeded in modifying the existing long-barreled gun on the mobile suit into a larger and meaner version.  How he accomplished that, no one would ever know.

Duo struggled with his new scythe, finally able to make his new suit wield it as efficiently as Deathscythe or Deathscythe Hell would.  His mobile suit practiced using the scythe as he cut up more pieces of the rubble of Relena's palace.  It was a constructive way to expel some anger, he decided.

Quatre spent his day with Catherine.  Securing his heat seeker sitar blades to the back of his new suit took all but thirty-four minutes.  At the moment, he and Catherine were walking through the back yard of the palace, watching Duo as he practiced with the homemade scythe.  

"Quatre?" Catherine's sweet voice called to him.  

He looked into her eyes.  "Yes, Cathy?"

She stopped walking.  "I just wanted to know something before you go."  Cathy's dragged her foot back and forth across the ground, conveying her nervousness and uncertainty.  

"What is it, Cathy?" Quatre asked, taking her hands into his.  She looked up at him, and he soon found that he lost himself in her light blue eyes.  He wanted to hold her close, kiss her lips and breathe in the scent of her.  But he held back.

"I just wanted to know what … what is going to happen after you leave."

Quatre thought a minute before answering.  "I was planning on coming back, to you if at all possible."  

Cathy's eyes sparkled as she looked at him.  "Really?"

"Of course," he assured her, giving her a light kiss on the lips.  

Quatre wanted to find a bench and sit down.  His lips tingled from their contact with Cathy's and he wasn't sure if he had the strength to continue standing.  Catherine wrapped her arms around his neck and gave Quatre a hug, holding him close to her.  Quatre placed his arms around her waist, basking in their awakened feelings for each other.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

"Someone's hitting on your sister," Duo said over the radio to Trowa's mobile suit.  

Trowa glanced down from his open cockpit, seeing Catherine embracing Quatre.  He climbed up into the pilot's seat in order to answer Duo.  "Yeah, I see that."  

"So whatcha going to do about it?" Duo asked, the teasing tone creeping into his voice as he bugged Trowa.

"Nothing."  

"Nothing?  You are going to let Quatre kiss your sister and do 'nothing' about it?  What's wrong with you, man?"

"Nothing is wrong with me.  Is it wrong to let Catherine find happiness?  Is it wrong for Quatre to finally be with someone who cares more about him than his money?  Is it wrong for me to wish happiness for both my sister and my best friend?  Besides, Quatre knows who her brother is.  He wouldn't dare hurt her, ever."

Duo nodded on the screen.  "Yea, I guess you're right.  But you're talking like you knew they liked each other.  You seem prepared for all of this."

Trowa nodded back.  "I was.  I did know that Catherine liked Quatre.  It was obvious in the way she always asked about him when I left unannounced from the circus and reappeared days or weeks later.  And each time I saw you guys, Quatre would ask how she was.  I was quite prepared."  Trowa smiled a little to himself, seeing the happiness radiate from two of the people he cared most for.  "And if they hadn't of done anything about it – I think I would have locked them in a closet together for a while."

Laughing, Duo signed off and continued his practice, hoping that Heero and Jinx were as happy at this moment as Quatre and Catherine were.


	14. Billiards

**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Gundam Wing**

Chapter Fourteen 

"Hey, Jinx," Heero said, jarring her concentration from what he'd just told her about the operating system to his dark blue eyes.  "Can I ask you something?"

Jinx swallowed hard.  She hoped he wasn't going to ask what she had nightmares about last night.  "Sure, Heero, What?"

Heero put his elbows on her thighs and looked up into her face.  She was in the pilot's chair and Heero had made himself comfortable on the floor in front of her and between her legs.  He sighed, a little angry at himself for not having the courage to speak out loud anymore.  _I was just wondering what went wrong last night.  Is there something you want to talk about_?

_I don't really _want_ to talk about it, Heero.  I just can't_.  Jinx closed her eyes, unable to look at him because of the shame she felt inside.  She felt the sharp hurt that Heero let slip before he effectively concealed his emotions from her.

He was nervous, she felt.  _Do you like Duo_?  His voice sounded small and unsure in her mind.  

She couldn't help but smile at him reassuringly.  _Not as much as I like you_, she said smoothly, leaning down to kiss him lightly.  _And I'm not too thrilled with this whole sharing thing,_ she kidded.  

Heero laughed, breaking the harsh silence of before.  "Don't worry about that.  Relena's the only one who took that seriously."  He smiled widely at her.  

If she had met Heero Yuy five years ago when she still worked with OZ and before Operation Meteor, Jinx would have left Specials to be with him.  She understood why Relena chased him around all the time when they were fifteen.  He had a kind of indescribable magnetism that made her want nothing but to be near him, and be loved by him.  Her heart fluttered when she thought of it.  Heero Yuy did love her.  He'd said so.  

_Do you love me_? she asked on a whim.  

_Of course_, he answered without hesitation.  _You're the reason I'm in such a good mood today.  I'm overjoyed that we're all alive and well, considering our recent scrapes with death_.

_We have been close to dying a few times this week, _she agreed.  _And every time I wake up, you're there_.

Heero smiled playfully at her as he tugged on the end of her braid.  _Now, is that a good thing or a bad thing_?

"Definitely good," she said, capturing his mouth with hers.

*

Gathered around the dinner table, only two people were missing.  

"So when do you think Heero and Jinx will come back inside?" Duo asked, striking up a dinner conversation.

"Leave them alone, Maxwell," Wufei warned.  "Let them be as they wish to be."

"Hey, I'm just wondering.  They've been out in that cockpit since this morning.  And now they're missing dinner?  Maybe something's wrong.  Heero never misses a meal."

*

Heero's back was against the base of the pilot's chair, with Jinx's legs on either side of his shoulders.  He pointed to a mass of a control pad on the right side of the main monitor.  "That's the programming shelf for the operating system.  You shouldn't have to worry about using that during battle…"

His voice continued, but Jinx wasn't listening.  Heero had tirelessly pointed out all the fine details of the cockpit, and now he was even describing things she wouldn't need.  She desperately needed this refresher course, but damn it was boring.  To break the monotony, she let her fingers roam through Heero's hair, for his head was positioned conveniently close to her lap.  

"…and…" Heero's voice trailed off as he became more and more distracted by the fingertips massaging through his hair.  It felt too good for him to concentrate on giving his lessons.  Succumbing to the quiet pleasure of the massage, he laid his head back on the seat, feeling Jinx's thighs on the outsides of his ears.  

She leaned forward, after being cut off from the majority of his hair when his head came back into her lap.  Jinx ran her hands down his neck and over his chest, bending delicately over the handsome face with closed eyes.  Leaning back against the chair, she let her fingertips glide over the sides of his face, since that was all she could reach.  

Heero's hands started at her ankles, then ran up the outside of her legs to her upper thighs.  Jinx suppressed a shudder.  Heero felt it.

_What's wrong_? He asked her, taking his hands away from her.  He was used to this behavior from her.  Every time he touched her in any way close to intimately, she freaked out and told him to stop.  Heero wanted to get to the bottom of this.

I…I can't… 

_Jinx, _his voice was soothing and sweet as it hummed in her head, _I would never do anything to hurt you_.  

She opened her eyes to look at him, noticing that he'd turned around to face her and his eyes glowed with concern as he gazed up at her.   _I believe you_.  

Heero rose up onto his knees to be eye-level with Jinx.  Reaching up slowly, he brushed some of her loose bangs to the side of her face, letting his fingers trace down the sides of her face and along her jawline.  Tenderly, he leaned in close to her and kissed her mouth.  

*

Jinx watched Heero as he walked through the garden, disappearing in to the dark gloom of the night.  She sighed, her head resting back against the support of the pilot's chair.  His long strides carried him away from her and into the undamaged portion of Relena's palace.  

She saw him turn at the doorway, looking back to where he knew she was sitting even though he probably couldn't see her.  Peering at the monitor, Jinx had the advantage of enhanced lighting and a telescopic view.  She saw the wistful look in his eyes before he turned back around and walked steadily through the doorway.

He'd told her that he would never hurt her.  And she trusted him completely.  But no matter how she tried to tell herself that Heero's hands touched her body with nothing but love and gentleness, she couldn't make her mind forget Sterling's hatred-filled and lustful groping hands.  Heero had smiled at her after she told him why she was scared of him.  He'd smiled and run his through her hair, bringing her close to hug him.  Tears still stained Jinx's cheeks from when he'd held her weeping in his arms, her body shaking violently with remembered terror.  

And then, the Gundam pilot 01 who was renowned for wanting to kill everyone, including himself, gingerly wiped the wetness from her face and under her eyes.  He gave her a tender kiss on her lips, whispering that he understood why she was so upset.  He said understood why she felt the way she did, and he never wanted her to do something she wasn't completely ready for.  

He wrapped his arms tightly around her in an embrace, talking softly into her hair.  Heero told her that he would never leave her.  

Jinx had looked up and smiled at him then.  How ironic, she'd said, I was just going to ask you to leave.  I need think a while, alone.

His laughter sounded odd echoing in the cockpit.  But it warmed her in a way that she couldn't explain or understand.  I'll leave you alone, he said to her still chuckling.  I'm sure you've had enough of me for one day, he teased as he kissed her goodbye.  

Now, here she was.  Her skin tingled from where Heero's embrace kept her warm only moments ago.  

She smiled to herself, overjoyed that the sphere's most ruthless assassin and most cunning and perfect soldier had found emotion together. 

*

"Hey buddy," Duo's voice called out over the game conversation as Heero walked into the billiards room with a plate of cold food in his hand.  "Where've you been all night?"

Heero ignored the question and looked at Trowa.  "What happened to my bedroom?"

"Hope you don't mind," Duo answered for the silent giant.  "We pushed your and Jinx's beds out of the way so we could have access to the pool table.  Care to join in a game?"

"Let me eat first," Heero said, settling down on the couch next to Catherine.  Quatre was currently playing with Duo.  And Quatre was currently getting his Arabian ass kicked in 9-ball.  

"How do you feel, Heero?" Catherine asked, concerned for Quatre's friend.  

Heero swallowed before answering, "Better, thank you.  Back's still a little sore to the touch, but it's healing quickly."

"And how's Jinx doing?"  Heero smiled to himself.  Catherine was genuinely concerned about everyone, just like Quatre would be if he weren't so concerned about his pool game right now.  

"She's feeling much better.  Only had a few burns and she has the ability to heal much faster than I do."  Heero glanced around what his makeshift bedroom and was pleased to find that only Trowa, Duo, Quatre, and Catherine were there.  He didn't feel like fighting Relena right now.  He had too much on his mind with what Jinx had just told him.

"Damn you!  Damn you all to hell!" Quatre screamed at Duo, throwing his cue on the ground.  He stomped around the table and sat heavily on the other side of Catherine.  His arms were crossed over his chest, and he adorned a frightful pout.

Catherine scooted closer to him, rubbing the top of his head.  "Aw, did wittle Quatre-pooh get his wittle butt beat by meanie Duo?" she teased.  

Everyone stifled laughter, even Quatre.  

"Yeah," he admitted, leaning his head over to rest on her shoulder.  "Make it feel better?" he asked in his best childlike voice.  

"Sure sweetie," she answered, kissing the top of his head.

"Such public romantic display is disgusting," a voice from the doorway spoke.  Wufei entered the room, shaking his head at the cuddling couple on the couch.  "How can you stand sitting next to them?" he asked Heero.  "And how can you stand seeing your sister behave in such a manner?" he asked, directing his attention to Trowa.

"She's a big girl," Trowa said evenly, masking the smile that threatened to curl his lips.  "Cathy can do what she wants."

Catherine's eyes lit up.  "Oh, can I?" she asked with a mischievous tone of voice.  

Trowa nodded, smiling knowingly.

"In that case," she said, standing and grabbing Quatre by the hand.  "I'll just go and do what I want."  Dragging him off the couch, Catherine led Quatre out of the room to a more private area of the palace.  

"Disgusting," Wufei said, plopping down on the couch next to Heero.

"What's so disgusting about it?  A couple expressing their feelings for one another is completely natural, Wufei," Trowa said to him, racking the pool balls.  

"But publicly?" Wufei questioned.

"Things are little more free around the circus," Duo piped up from the other side of the pool table.  "Besides, what have you and Sally been 'expressing' the last hour?"

Wufei blushed.  

Heero started chuckling, setting his plate aside and getting up to play Trowa in a classic bout of billiards.  He meticulously coated the tip of his cue with chalk.

"What are you laughing about, Yuy?  You're just as guilty as I am," Wufei said, trying to shift the attention to anyone but himself.

"Not true.  Don't mention it again," Heero said, breaking the friendly atmosphere with his most menacing voice.

"Whoa, Heero," Duo said, trying to soothe the now angered pilot.  "Wufei didn't know, so you can't blame him for assuming."

Heero's stern look faded, and he smiled apologetically at Wufei.  "Sorry, Wu, I shouldn't have snapped like that.  Its just…just a sensitive subject right now." 

"No harm done, Heero.  I wasn't aware of any problems between you two.  Sorry for jumping to conclusions," Wufei answered, scooting over so Duo could sit on the couch next to him.  

Heero thrust hard, breaking the neatly packed triangle of pool balls and sending them scattering over the green felt.  A few balls fell into various pockets around the table.  He walked around the table, peering into the pockets to see which balls had fallen.  "Problem's mainly with me," he said softly, initiating a group counseling session.  

"What about you?" Trowa asked, watching Heero take aim for his second shot.  Another ball fell with a click into a pocket.  Getting Heero to talk was tricky business, and right now the best strategy was to give him time to come up with exactly what he wanted to say.

Heero took aim again, bending low over the table to perfect the position of the cue before he struck.  "I'm just too eager, I guess," he said, reaching back to let loose on the cue ball again.  More clicks resounded from the table, louder than Heero's voice had been.

"Too eager?  You mean you want to and she doesn't?" Duo asked, unashamed of talking so freely about sex with his friends.  

Heero nodded slightly, stepping back to let Trowa take aim for his first shot.  Heero hadn't made any stripes into the pocket last shot. 

"Just give her time," Trowa said, with Wufei nodding from the couch.  Trowa missed downing any solid balls and took three steps back.  It was Heero's turn again.  He stalked around the table, trying to see his next possible shot from every angle.  Satisfied with his approach, Heero took aim again.

"And learn to be patient," Wufei said, surprising everyone by contributing to the discussion of Heero's 'weakness'.  

Heero nodded at Wufei's comment, sending his intended stripe across the table and into a side pocket.  He stalked the table again, silently frustrated that Trowa's solid balls were scattered all over the felt, blocking his balls from the pockets.  

"Yea, man," Duo said, watching the game intently.  "Try 13," he suggested before continuing with his earlier train of thought, "you need to just give her some time.  She'll get used to you and then what happens will happen.  You have to take it slow.  I know it's hard to keep your hands off a beautiful woman, but you don't have a choice.  How does that saying go?"  Duo looked at Wufei, as if the Chinaman could give any clue as to what Duo was trying to think of.  "Taste blood and you want more?  Whatever it is, I'm trying to say this: since you've had sex with girls before, now that you deeply care about someone, it only feels natural and right to want that kind of special physical relationship with her too."

Heero leaned down, lining his cue with the cue ball with the thirteen.  "Haven't tasted anything," he mumbled, sending the cue across the table to click against the thirteen.  It didn't make the pocket.  

He looked up.  Trowa was leaning against the wall with cue in hand, staring unblinkingly at him.  Wufei had a startled look on his face, very uncharacteristic for his "I'm strong and I know it" attitude.  Duo's mouth was practically on the floor.  He leaned forward on the couch.

"You mean to tell us that you…you're a virgin?" Duo asked.

"Well, yeah.  Is that a problem?" He asked defensively, wondering what the big deal about his sexual status was.

Duo burst into laughter, holding the arm of the couch to steady himself.  Wufei even chuckled, not believing that the great Heero Yuy was still an innocent little virgin.

Trowa glared at the laughing pair on the couch.  "Nothing's wrong with it, Heero," he said.  "Its just that…well…even Quatre's gotten laid."  

Heero scowled, but in a good-natured way.  He knew the guys were just having fun.  "Trowa," he said, calling his attention, "what's with all your solids being on the table?"

"That's my strategy," Trowa said with a prideful smile.  "Leave all my balls on the table to block your shots to the pockets."


	15. Relena's Decision

**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Gundam Wing.**

**Chapter Fifteen**

At dinner the next day, Relena made the announcement, "The Executive counsel has decided how to approach the threat of the new OZ base that we are all familiar with."  Everyone looked up from their small conversations to the head of the table where Relena was awaiting their attention.  "We've decided to take military action against the base…"  Sighs of relief were heard around the table.  "…only after they've shown aggression against the United Alliance government."

The usually passive Quatre stood up in anger, slamming his hands down on the table.  He'd had enough of Relena's bullshit.  "What do you mean _after_ they've shown aggression?  Does kidnapping a hero of war and blowing up the palace of the President while an Executive meeting was being held NOT COUNT as aggression?!"

Relena stood firm.  "In the eyes of the Executive Counsel, it does not."

"But you're the head of the Counsel," Trowa interjected.  "You should have some sway over them."

"I do," she replied, her voice calm.  "I am the one that persuaded the Counsel not to pursue military action against the base."

Mouths dropped in shock.

"You told them not to attack the base," Heero repeated, unable to fathom why Relena would do such a thing.

"You told them not to attack the base?" Duo repeated, still in shock.

"What are you - the obvious brothers?" Relena retorted sarcastically.  "Of course I told them not to attack the base.  I am a firm believer in total pacifism and will not allow this little incident to cause me to contradict my former statements against methods of war."

"Now is not the time for idealism," Heero growled, his voice conveying about ten percent of the anger he felt brewing up inside of him. 

Wufei entered the conversation.  "We need to retaliate against the wrongs they've already committed against the President and her close friends.  Surely even you can understand the importance of remaining strong in the eyes of the enemy, Relena."

"Do not bother me with your talk of justice and strength, Wufei.  I've heard it quite enough over the years," Relena turned her attention away from Wufei and toward Quatre who had started to shake.  

"How can you do this to your friends, Relena?" he asked between breath intakes.  

"My friends, as you so sentimentally put it," Relena said, "are irrelevant in the grand scheme of the future of the United Alliance.  I have the weight of more than just my friends on my shoulders.  The Earth and Colonies are depending on me to make the correct decisions.  And waltzing into war with a remnant of some OZ base does not seem to be in the best interest of the Alliance."  She ended her little speech by sitting down delicately in her chair and picking up her fork to resume dinner.

Quatre left the table, knocking his chair over in the process and scaring a poor servant who only wanted to refill his tea.  Catherine got up and quickly followed him.  Sally was the next to leave, with Trowa, Hilde, and Wufei following close behind.  Duo shook his head sadly at Relena, as if her decision were somehow a product of circumstances she didn't understand, as if she were a three-year-old child.  He walked out of the room, following the previously departed entourage.  Heero and Jinx were left alone at the table with Relena.  

_Be nice,_ Jinx's voice warned Heero.  _I think killing her is a severe governmental infraction, punishable by death_.

_I can handle myself_, he said back.  "Relena, you realize that you've just insulted about half the people that used to sit at this table," Heero stated calmly.  "Duo was kidnapped, Jinx and I were nearly blown up, Catherine was almost crushed under the rubble, and everyone else would have been extremely upset by the loss of a sister or good friend.  You've dug yourself into one deep hole here."  

"I haven't dug myself anywhere," Relena insisted, pouting a little.  She hadn't expected the news to go so badly.  "And I made the correct decision to order the destruction of those mobile suits as soon as a demolition crew, loyal to the Alliance, arrives tomorrow morning."

"What?" Jinx exclaimed, talking directly to Relena for about the first time since they'd met.  "Why are you doing that?"

"To keep those horrible suits from mutilating the peace we fought so hard to build.  But you wouldn't know about that, would you Plague?  I'm sure you were on the wrong side of the line in the sand back then, weren't you?"

"Relena," Heero warned.

"Don't worry, Heero," Jinx said, smiling a little to herself.  "During the Eve Wars, I worked for many different factions, and I don't deny my occasional involvement with the wrong side.  But I admit my past mistakes, Relena.  You still make yours."

"What are you talking about, wench?" Relena scowled.

Jinx's smile got even bigger, peaking Heero's interest in what she was going to say next.  "You said so yourself, "the peace we _fought_ so hard to build."  Isn't that a little contradictory to your firm belief in total pacifism?"

Relena's eyes narrowed as she glared at the girl who slept in Heero's arms last night.  In Heero's arms and between him and Duo, Relena noticed when she went in to check on them and saw them all cuddled on the floor together.  Exclaiming a loud hmph, the President got up from the table and walked to her relocated private quarters.

*    *    *    *    *    *    *

Jinx and Heero joined the others in the billiards room, which had been converted to a mass bedroom since the west wing of the palace contained most of the spare bedrooms and the west wing was no longer – well, the west wing was just no longer.    

Catherine was holding Quatre's head to her chest, trying to comfort the fiery blonde.  Trowa and Duo were sitting on the pool table, legs dangling over the sides.  Trowa's feet rested on the floor while Duo's swung back and forth a few inches above the ground.  Sally, Hilde, and Wufei were crammed together on the couch, with Wufei in the middle. All attention was turned to the couple that walked in the door.  

"Stop talking telepathically and include the rest of us in your conversation," Duo teased, noticing that Heero and Jinx were staring at each other as they walked in.  

"Sorry," Heero said, his thoughts weighing heavily on his mind and everyone could tell.  "I guess we should tell you what's going on."  He looked at Jinx for support.

"It's like this guys," Jinx said, taking initiative.  "Relena's a bitch and has already ordered that the suits we worked so hard building yesterday and practicing with today are to be destroyed at soon as possible."  Trowa gripped the edge of the pool table, causing it to creak.  "That means tomorrow morning."

Quatre was about to stand up and start speaking forcefully again, but Catherine held his head against her, unwilling to let him get more angry.  "How can she do that?" he asked, his voice muffled by Catherine's shirt.  

Duo's legs started swinging faster under the pool table.  "That only leaves one option then," he said, looking like the Shinigami again.  

"What's that?" Sally asked, knowing the answer but hoping against all odds that it wasn't what she thought it was.  

"Take the suits now and attack the base against orders," Wufei said, stating the obvious answer that every pilot in the room had concluded immediately after hearing Relena's dumb decision.

"I was afraid of that," Sally said, taking Wufei's hand into her own.  For once, he didn't object to the public display.  He'd be leaving her before daylight, and no one knew if he'd ever be able to come back to her.  It was ok to make exceptions under these circumstances.  

"Oh no," Catherine breathed, looking first at her brother sitting above her on the pool table and then down to the blonde hair against her chest.  "Not both of you."

"We all should go.  It gives us the best chance of all returning if there are more people to watch our backs," Heero said, trying to comfort her.  

"I know."

A heavy silence hung over the room as each pilot contemplated his own death and the death of his comrades.  They thought of leaving their loved ones and never returning, dreading that their loved ones might have to continue life without them.  They thought of living their own lives, separated from the men they'd come to know as brothers.  How empty it would seem.

"We should go," Jinx stated, riveting them from their contemplations.  "Relena may be dense, but even she might figure us out and try to stop us before we can carry out this plan."

"What plan?" Trowa asked.

"Right now," Heero said truthfully, "our only plan is to leave."

Quatre's face reappeared as he pulled away from Catherine.  "Mission Accepted," he said, standing.  

*    *    *    *    *    *    *

Quatre stared at Catherine's beautiful face as the pilots settled themselves in the shuttle.  The suits were loaded, and it was time to leave.  Tears were in her eyes as she gazed back at him from the monitor.  Trowa came up behind Quatre, putting a hand on his friend's shoulder.  

"Be careful, both of you," she said, her voice shaking as she tried to control her tears.  "I love you," she managed to say before breaking into a fit of sobs.  She left the screen in a hurry.  Trowa and Quatre looked at each other a moment, trying to decide if Catherine had meant she loved Trowa or she loved Quatre.  

"Both," Jinx said from behind, reaching between them to cut off the transmission.  "She meant that she loves both of you."  Everyone had said their goodbyes and it was time to focus on the mission now.  

"And who do you love, Jinx?" Duo teased from the pilot's chair.  

"Each and every one of you," she replied, looking directly at Heero.  He didn't avert his eyes from the monitors in front of him, but he smiled, feeling that she was looking at him.  

"Hey, copilot," Duo called to Heero, "give me a countdown."

"Ignite engines in 5…4…3…"

*    *    *    *    *    *    *

Relena sat up in bed, feeling the ground shake lightly beneath her as the rumbling sound of her dream blasted suddenly loud and clear in real life.  She looked over at the chronometer, barely registering that it was 01:38.  What the hell was going on?  Rolling out of bed, she made her way to the window, expecting to see signs of an earthquake.  Earthquake?  She hurried faster around the bed and to the window.  There were no earthquakes here…

"What are you idiots doing?" she yelled into the windowpane, banging her forehead against it.  The carrier took off from her back yard, angling high into the night sky and disappearing from view within a few seconds.

"Argh!" she screamed, running through the hallway to the girls' room.  Even though she'd designated a girls' room in the study and a boys' room in the billiards room, Jinx had refused to follow the rules and slept in the billiards room instead of with the other girls.  Relena had to grab the doorframe of the study to slow herself down and swing around into the open room.  "What are they doing?" she screamed.

Then she noticed the girls in the room.  Sally and Hilde had tears in their eyes, and they were sitting on either side of Catherine, who was shaking from her sobs.  

*    *    *    *    *    *    *

"I hope she's not crying," Quatre said softly, breaking the silence that had permeated the carrier since liftoff.  Space was now wide open before them.  

"I'm sure she is," Trowa answered, not helping the situation any.  "But she's strong, and as long as we promise to return to her, then she'll be ok."

Quatre smiled, holding his right hand out to Trowa.  "Promise me you'll take care of her," he said.  Trowa grasped his hand firmly.  

"Promise me you'll take care of her," Trowa repeated back to Quatre.

"Promise," they both said in unison, their grips tightening before they released hands.  

"Oh, the brotherly love is going to smother and kill us all," Duo screamed in mock terror, dragging a smile from everyone in the carrier.  He proceeded to put his hands to his neck, mimicking choking.  Duo coughed, fell out of the pilot's seat, sputtered, and died.  

Laugher erupted from everyone, even the 'dead' Duo.  

"Come on," Heero urged to Duo.  "Get your ass off the floor.  We need to figure out what we want to do next."

"Exactly," Wufei chimed in, "What is the course of our next action?"

Duo grabbed a hold of his pilot's chair and dragged himself up into it.  He swiveled around to face the majority of the group.  Trowa and Quatre were sitting side by side at the navigator's station.  Wufei and Jinx were positioned in front of the weapons consol.  Heero was next to him as copilot.  "I guess we head toward the base," he said with a shrug.  "Nothing like a good ol' preemptive strike to get this party started."

"I agree," Trowa said, nodding his head slightly.  

Nods emanated from the rest of the pilots as well.  There was no other logical plan of action to take.  

*    *    *    *    *    *    *

Relena swore at herself for being so naïve as to leave the ex-Gundam pilots to their own devices for a few hours.  They'd succeeded in stealing the suits she'd meant to destroy, caused an alarm to go off as they blasted off into the night, initiated an emergency Counsel meeting, and discredited the President of the United Alliance because she had ever even known them.  

She sighed heavily, unsure of what to do.  Locked out of the Counsel meeting, she could only hope that the members inside believed her when she said she'd told the pilots not to strike out against the base.  She could only hope they'd give her testimony the benefit of the doubt and decide not to vote her out of office on account of this current problem.  

Sally walked up to Relena, sitting next to her on the padded bench.  "You brought this upon yourself, you know," Sally said, not helping Relena's foul mood.

"I know, I know," she hissed back at the doctor.  "I'm fully aware of what an idiot I am."  Relena stood up quickly from the bench, crossed her arms in front of her, and proceeded to pace up and down the narrow hallway.  Her future was being decided in that room, and here Sally was placing more blame on her.

*    *    *    *    *    *    *

"Colonel Noin?" Duo asked, not believing the woman's words.  "Do you mean to tell us it's acceptable for us to dock on your Preventor craft, which goes against Ms. Peacecraft's recent decree of not attacking the base?"

"That's right, boys," she replied with a cocky attitude.  "Come on over and stay a while."

Duo glanced over to Heero, who had a look of 'why not?' on his face.  Ok then, Duo thought.  "We'll be docking in…" he checked the chronometer, "…3 minutes and 39 seconds, Noin.  See you shortly."


	16. Infiltration

DISCLAIMER – I do not own Gundam WIng Chapter Sixteen 

"Hello boys," Noin said, watching them file out of the shuttle.  She was a little surprised to see Jinx exit from the hatch, but then again, Jinx never was one to stand aside when there was a war to be won.  Waiting at home for the men to return was not one of Jinx's personality traits.

"Hey, Lu!" Duo said, sauntering up to her.  

"Watch the nicknaming," Noin warned, not wanting to seem less in the eyes of her soldiers.  She smiled at Duo's friendliness despite herself.

Wufei stifled a yawn.

"You must be tired, taking off in the middle of the night like that.  You all should rest," Noin said, leading the way out of the hangar and through the hallways of her craft.  

"Have something to eat?" Duo cheerfully asked, his stomach rumbling.  

"Not until breakfast is served at 06:00.  That gives you guys about 3 hours to rest."  She stopped in front of a large room.  It was a conference room that had obviously been substituted to serve as a bunkroom.  Three sets of bunk beds lined the walls, and the large conference table had been pushed to the back of the room.  

Duo mumbled something about starving to death within three hours as the pilots shuffled into the room.  They were all beyond tired, having not slept since the night before.  And the day filled with suit-practicing and weapons checks on top of having to escape Relena's palace had worn them all out.  

Noin remained in the doorway for a while.  Jinx plopped down in the middle of the floor, with Duo next to her.  Slowly the pilots either took a seat on a bed or on the large conference table so that they were all in a rough circle.  

"What are we going to do?" Quatre asked, voicing everyone's question.  

Faces looked thoughtful as they considered their options. 

"We don't know where the artillery storage is," Wufei pointed out.  "And I'm sure none of us want to be responsible for just blowing the entire base out of existence.  We need to be more strategic."

"So aim for the weapon's storage again?" Duo asked.

"Sounds good to me," Trowa offered, stretching and laying down as he got more comfortable on the expensive conference room table.

"But we don't know where the artillery storage is," Wufei repeated in dismay.  This would be harder than any of them thought it would be.  

"Infiltrate," Heero said.

"What?"

"Send in someone to infiltrate the base, become part of the ranks to send back information to the rest of us.  Then we'd know where the storage was," Jinx explained.

Obviously, the two of them had already discussed this, Duo thought.  "So who do we send?" he asked, knowing already who would volunteer.

"Trowa has been successful in the past," Quatre offered.  "I'm too well known."

"As am I," Wufei said, referring to his involvement in the Preventors.  

"And I'm already dead," Duo said with a cheery smile.  He was still proud of that fiasco.

"So Trowa, Jinx or Heero?" Noin spoke up from behind them.

Again, faces were quiet at they contemplated who to send.

"Jinx and I," Heero said quietly. 

"Why?" Trowa asked, not wanting to be left out.

"You have a sister to return to.  What if this maniac idea doesn't pan out?  We could use your explosives knowledge to still blow up the base if we need," Heero explained.  "You all have someone waiting for you."

The pilots looked at each other, knowing that Heero was right.  Wufei had Sally waiting.  Trowa and Quatre promised to return to Cathy.  Duo was too important to all of them to send on this suicide mission.  And suicide mission it was.

"I might be able to pull some strings," Jinx offered.  "I used to be a part of this organization, remember?"  

Duo nodded, knowing that she was best for the job, but unwilling to let both of his friends go off and leave him.  He suddenly reached over, hugging her close.  

"Details in the morning," Heero said, lying down on the bed he happened to be sitting upon.  He closed his eyes, signaling that the rest of them should do so as well.  

Noin turned off the lights and closed the door behind her.  

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

It was 10:53, and none of the pilots had awakened yet.  Noin was starting to get worried.  Maybe they had left in the middle of the night, she thought.  Maybe something had happened to them.  She hurried as she ran down the hallway to the conference room door.  No light shone from the crack under the door.  Maybe Jinx and Heero had left.  Maybe…

The door swung open silently, a ray of light from the hallway grew across the floor, illuminating one of the sweetest scenes Noin had ever witnessed.  

The die-hard rough and tough Gundam pilots were in a heap on the floor, snuggled together as they slept peacefully.  Heero was holding Jinx close to him, spooning her.  Jinx was doing the same to Duo, who held one of her hands over his waist and close to his chest and hugging it like a child hugs a teddy bear.  Jinx's other hand was extended up, holding onto Quatre's hand.  Quatre was laying above their heads, with his body perpendicular to theirs.  Trowa was using Quatre's side as a pillow, his long body stretched out under the large conference table.  Wufei was even part of the group, similarly using Duo's calf as a pillow.  

Noin smiled.  Even tough Gundam pilots need to support each other, she thought.  "Hey guys," she said in a whisper.  

Heero's eyes immediately popped open, as did Wufei's.  

"It's getting late," she explained.  "You all should eat and get started on your mission."  Noin closed the door and left, leaving Heero and Wufei to wake the others.

Wufei sat up, groaning and rubbing his neck.  Duo's leg was not all that comfortable of a pillow.  His noise woke up Trowa, who seemed a little surprised at himself for using his sister's lover and his best friend as a pillow.  The lanky man stood up slowly, stretching out.

The removal of weight from his side made Quatre's eyes flutter open as he woke up.  "What time is it?" he growled, unhappy to wake up.

"Too late," Heero explained, squeezing Jinx tighter as he spoke.  She stirred in his arms.  

"I don't want to go," Duo whined, snuggling closer back into Jinx's stomach.  

"Come on," Wufei ordered, reaching down and grabbing a leg.  He pulled Duo away from the couple still on the floor.  "You're the one who wanted to eat."

"Did someone say eat?" Duo asked, his eyes popping wide open.  In an instant, he was up on his feet, looking around him for food.

Trowa and Quatre shook their heads in disbelief.  Duo would do anything as long as you offered him food.  

"Jinx," Heero said softly into her ear.  

"Let me sleep a while longer," she pleaded.  Heero jerked a little in surprise.  He didn't think she had woken up.  "I need to prepare for going back in there.  Clear my mind of anger," she explained.

"Do you want me to stay?"

"No, go and plan with them," she said softly, momentarily squeezing Heero's hand that she held against her chest.

Heero sat up, and then put his arms under her legs and back.  He lifted her and gently laid her on the closest bed.  None of the beds had been used, save for the few pillows or blankets that were stolen off to make the floor more comfortable.  He pulled an extra blanket up over her and kissed her lightly on the forehead.  "I'll be back soon," he said.  

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   

Jinx stretched in the copilot's seat, still not fully awake from when Heero picked her up and carried her out of the bedroom after the boys had a meeting.  They were on their way to the OZ base, and she had to be fully alert and fast if they were going to survive this.  Shaking her head to rattle her brain to active mode, she glanced aside to Heero's intent face.  He was more concerned with flying the little piece of shit shuttle that they'd gotten from Noin.  

Duo hailed them from the carrier.  "Hey guys, just wanted to give a final call before we go into stealth mode," he grinned from the monitor.  

"Final call, received," Heero said, slipping easily into full-soldier mode.  

"How you feelin' Jinx?" Duo asked.  

She leaned over close to Heero to answer him.  "Been better.  Returning to the Lion's Den is not exactly my greatest fantasy, you know."

"I know, babe," Duo empathized.  "But a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do."

"Sure thing, Duo," she said smiling.  Jinx was having a hard time concentrating.  Her chin was practically on Heero's shoulder as she leaned over to talk to Duo.  Their cheeks occasionally brushed against one another, and Jinx tingled at her nearness to Heero.  "Keep in touch via Zero," she said, leaning her head in Heero's direction.

"Sure thing.  Over and out."

Heero willed himself to concentrate.  Jinx's breath was warm on his neck, and he found himself constantly figuring and refiguring the distance between his lips and hers.  

"Zero," a voice called in his head.  It took him a moment to realize that Duo was talking to him though the earpiece he wore.  

"Yea, Death?"

"Just checking the connection.  You hear me ok?"

"Yea."

"Good, I hear you loud and clear.  Remember, everything you hear, I hear," Duo said, referring to the microchip technology that allowed the tiny earpiece microtransmitter to access Heero's sound receptors in his brain.  

It hadn't been Heero's most favorite way of keeping in touch during the infiltration part of the mission, but that was the only sure way they could think of on short notice.  

He glanced aside to Jinx, who to his disappointment was sitting back in the copilot's chair.  _You alright?_ he asked silently, not wanting Duo to hear their private conversation.

_I'm scared_, she admitted, shivering a little in her chair.

_Don't worry,_ he told her, _we'll be in and out of there so quickly they won't even know what hit them_.  He smiled and took a hold of her hand.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

"So, who are you again?" the scruffy looking officer asked him. 

"Heero Yuy, ex-OZ agent and assassin, looking for admittance to your ranks, Sir!" Heero sharply replied with a perfect soldier salute.  

"Hmm," the man hummed as he stalked around Heero.  He was looking for a weapon of some kind, or maybe a transmitter.  It was just too good to be true for the Plague to bring back an ex-Gundam pilot to work on their side.  "Do you realize, Yuy," he asked, "that we are the scum of OZ?  Even OZ did not agree with Bravo section.  We were kicked out of the faction, ordered to disband for life.  Only after you disposed of our former captors were we free to rise and reclaim our place among the rulers of the Sphere." 

Heero remained calm and collected on the outside.  Inside he was seething.  These guys were the ones they'd been told about.  The group of soldiers more interested in mutilating and destruction than the sanctity of human life.  On several occasions they were known to have murdered in cold blood, killing women and children in the streets during an uprising.  They were the ones responsible for killing Duo's Sister Helen and Father Maxwell.  He wasn't sure if he could do this anymore.  His knees felt weak.

But he couldn't back out now.  Jinx had already been taken through the corridors, led to be a member of the soldiers here.  They trusted an assassin like her, for they weren't aware of her secretly fighting against OZ on the side of the Preventors.  Heero on the other hand was known to fight back against them.

"Are you prepared to strike back against Peacecraft and help me claim the Sphere as my own?" the brawny man asked, growling in Heero's face and trying to make the young man loose his nerve.

"Sir, yes, Sir!" 

His eyes narrowed.  "I don't believe you," he said simply.  Before Heero knew what was happening, hands grabbed him from all sides and yanked him down the hallway.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

Quatre gasped.  They all listened over the carrier's intercom as voices shouted at Heero, dragging him through hallways of the OZ base and leading him to a detention area.  For once, Quatre wished that they hadn't taken his advice: he wished they hadn't given Heero the earpiece.  Then they wouldn't have to listen as he grunted, resisting against the soldiers that held him.

Duo's imagination went into overdrive.  He remembered seeing Jinx strapped to the electric field wall, and he could accurately visualize Heero in that same position, his eyes shining in defiance as they slowly killed his friend with torture.  Duo blinked hard, trying to rid himself of the visions.  

A metal door clanged shut, and soldiers shuffled around Heero.  They could hear the light clicking sound, which meant Heero was now cuffed.  And the gentle jingling sound told them that chains were nearby.  Or keys.  More shuffling and the door slammed again.

They could hear Heero grunt again.  He was most likely struggling against his bonds.  

"Talk to me."

Duo snapped to reality, reaching to put the headset on.  "We're here, Zero," he said into the microphone as he adjusted it in front of his mouth.  "We're all here."

Heero moaned a little.

"Where's Hope, Zero?" Duo asked.

"You heard," Heero whispered, not wanting to draw too much attention to himself by speaking loudly.  "They took her somewhere.  She's a soldier now, for their side."

"Maybe she can get the job done herself, then rescue Heero," Quatre said hopefully.

"Find the location of the artillery storage, set up explosives to detonate when we fire upon the base, rescue Heero, and make it out of there alive?" Wufei said skeptically.  "There's no way one person can accomplish that."

"Shh," Trowa hushed them.  "Footsteps are approaching Heero."


	17. Pain of Pilot 01

DISCLAIMER – I do not own Gundam Wing. Chapter Seventeen 

Heero's head popped up as he heard multiple footsteps approaching his cell.  He was chained up to a beam overhead, with his flight suit unzipped and yanked down to his waist and his shoes off.  Why did OZ guys always like removing shoes? he wondered.  

Sighing, Heero flexed his arms, raising himself off of the floor.  The cuffs around his wrists cut into his flesh uncomfortably, but the pain wasn't unbearable.  Heavy chains went from the cuffs to the large beam overhead, letting Heero dangle with his knees barely off of the floor.  He pulled himself to his feet and propped his hands on his head.  The chain was too short for any other comfortable position.  He had a feeling they hadn't taken his comfort into consideration when securing him in this arrangement.

Heero wondered what happened to Jinx.  Had they put her in a cell similar to this one?  

The footsteps were louder and closer.  Many people were walking down the hallway toward his cell.  Easily at least twenty soldiers, he judged.  Was Jinx awaiting her own set of footsteps?  

He took a deep breath, waiting for what happened next.

The scruffy looking officer who had him taken into custody walked in, who had been the same man to send Jinx to torture, Heero noticed.  A few more lower-ranking officers filed into the room, one of them holding a short whip.  He shivered a little at seeing that.  Then he laid eyes upon the person he least expected.  Jinx.

She walked in, silent and part of the faultless formation of entering soldiers.  Jinx did not look at the prisoner as she entered the room.  She kept her gaze somewhere else, acting as the true soldier at perfect attention.    

_Jinx, thank goodness you're here,_ Heero said to her, recovering from the surprise of her presence.  _I would hate to go through this alone_.  

She didn't answer.

_Jinx?_

She didn't answer.

Heero began to panic.  The silence of her mouth was understandable, given the circumstances.  But the silence of her mind?  Heero choked on his own grief as he waited to hear her inside of his head.  

The scruffy looking officer was babbling on about something.  He was probably telling Heero exactly what he was holding him for and what he was going to do about it.  But Heero didn't care.  He just kept looking at her unwavering face, willing her to show him some warmth.  

She never answered.

"And now, Yuy," the officer said, jerking Heero's attention.  "We shall administer your punishment."  The man held his hand out, and the younger officer with the short whip stepped forward, placing the weapon into the outstretched hand.

"Plague!" the man called, making Heero jump at the ferocity.  

Heero watched as the woman he loved stepped forward out of the ranks, standing beside her commanding officer.  He watched as she never looked him in the eyes.  His heart sank into the pit of his stomach.

She took the offered whip and moved around behind Heero.  He closed his eyes shut, knowing what would happen next.

Nothing in his entire life prepared him for the stinging slash that ripped across his back.  Nothing had prepared him for tolerating the most excruciating pain, pain which came from the hands of a girl who was supposed to love him.  Nothing had prepared him for the realization that Jinx was a traitor.  

Not even the burn of the whip could mask that truth.  Jinx had betrayed him.

A sharp intake of breath hissed across his teeth as Heero forced himself to keep from yelling out in pain.  He wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of hearing him scream.  

The officer counted as Jinx laid lashes over Heero's back, neck and sides.  15.  The pain was beginning to become unbearable as new slashes on his skin ripped over older slashes, making the burning sensation increase tenfold.  19.  He gritted his teeth.  22.  _Jinx_, he tried calling out to her again.  23.  He wanted to hear her say that she has to do it to keep up her façade as an OZ soldier.  25.  He wanted to hear her say that she was sorry for being forced to hurt him.  27.  He wanted to hear anything.  29.  The silence was deafening, driving him insane as she pummeled his back with the whip again and again.  32.  Heero's rock-hard shell was cracking under her hands.  36.  His eyes were warm and stung as he tried to keep back the tears that threatened to fall.  39.  Unable to keep control, his arms began to shake at having to support his weight.  His knees had given out a long time ago.  40.  It stopped.  Heero's body relaxed, dangling from the cuffs and chains around his wrists that held him up.  He could feel the warm wetness of his own blood as it oozed down his back and legs, dripping on his feet and the floor.  

All of the soldiers walked out, leaving Heero alone in his cell.  His body was spent, and he fought to keep conscious.  

For perhaps the first time in his life, Heero Yuy cried.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

"Zero…Zero…Zero…" the dejected voice continued.  

Heero's mind slowly registered what was happening.  The earpiece.  Duo was talking to him.  His body ached, and he tried not to move so as not to aggravate his wounds further.  His wounds.  That's right, he reminded himself.  Jinx's hands delivered the evil.  She was the one who hurt him.  She was the traitor.  

"Zero, please," Duo pleaded.

"I'm here," Heero's cracked voice answered.  He could hardly speak.

A slight pause.  "Oh thank God," Duo's voice sounded relieved as he spoke.  "I've been trying to hail you for the past thirty minutes."  There was silence for a moment.  "What happened?" Duo asked tentatively.

Heero growled unconsciously.  "You know what happened."

"Please tell me it wasn't true.  Please tell me that what we thought we heard wasn't what really happened, Heero."  Duo sounded as if he were about to cry.  He was so distraught that he forgot to use Heero's codename.  

"It's true," Heero said with little emotion in his voice.  "Hope has died, and the Plague killed her."  He shifted uncomfortably again, blinking back more tears of pain.

"Oh God, Heero," Duo's voice said again.  "I'm so sorry."

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

"What do we do now?" Quatre asked, his voice shaking.

"What else can we do?" Trowa's stoic voice answered him.  

"We can't just carry on with the plan," Quatre contested.

Duo rammed his fist into the copilot's chair as he got up from the pilot's station.  "Fucking bitch!" he screamed to no one in particular.  Within seconds, a random piece of machinery was flung across the room and into the back wall.  Wufei had to duck in order to avoid the object's first attempt at flight.

"Settle down, Duo," Trowa said, his voice unwavering.  At a time like this, Heero was normally the one to keep everyone under control and remind them of the mission.  With Heero gone, Trowa would have to step up and take his place.  Only temporarily, he reminded himself.  Heero would be safe and back here in no time.  Trowa tried to believe it.  His faith was rapidly depleting.  

"We can't just carry on the mission as planned," Wufei offered, also trying to be the strength as things fell apart around the pilots.  "Things have become infinitely more complicated with Heero taken prisoner.  Duo, do we know where he is?"

Duo was watching the blood trickle from his knuckles after having recently collided his hand with the copilot's steel chair again.  "Huh?" he asked, jarred from this reverie.  

"Where is Heero?"

Duo sat down at the pilot's station, using his left hand to type while cradling his right hand against his chest.  His blood soaked into the blue flight suit.  A three-dimensional map of the base appeared on the main screen.  Lightly, in an underground area of the meteorite base, a red light blinked steadily.  

The light was blinking slowly, which caused Quatre to rush closer to the station and grab the headset off of the consol.  "Heero!" he called into the microphone.

The light continued its steady and slow blinking pace.

"HEERO!" Quatre yelled louder, using every ounce of his body to will Heero's answer.

The blinking increased.  A grunt was heard over the ship's intercom.  "Don't call me that," Heero insisted, his voice gruff with pain and weariness.  

"Apologies, Zero," Wufei answered, having taken the headset from Quatre and not trusting Duo to act dependable at this moment in time.  "We're just all a little shaken here."

"Me too, if I weren't so tired."  Heero groaned again.  "Any plans?"

"Negative, Zero.  No plans as of yet," Wufei admitted, scooting Duo out of the pilot's chair and making himself more comfortable.  Duo plopped to the ground and drew his knees up to his chin.  Quatre knelt beside him.  

"Have my position?" Heero asked.

"Affirmative.  Zero's location is confirmed."

"I'm under it."

"Huh?" Wufei asked, uncharacteristic of his previous military speech.

"I'm under the target.  I noticed as I was lead here."

Wufei gave a meaningful glance to Trowa who had recently sat in the copilot's chair.  Trowa typed on the consol and the view of the base enlarged, showing the immediate area around Heero in greater detail.  The small light that blinked in time to Heero's heartbeat was located one level below a large and heavily walled system of rooms.  

Wufei chose his words carefully as he asked Heero, "Zero's current position is directly below the intended target.  Confirm?"

"Confirmed."

"Are you sure, Heero?" Wufei asked, the military coldness left his voice.

"Yes.  Blow it all."

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

"WE CAN'T!" Duo screamed, nearly attacking Wufei.

Trowa held Duo's upper arms, keeping him from further injuring himself or injuring anyone else in the cloaked carrier that floated above the meteorite OZ base.  Duo struggled intensely against Trowa's iron grip.  

"LET ME GO!" he shouted, kicking and flailing his body around to wriggle out of Trowa's strong hands. 

Wufei stepped forward and quickly caught Duo's feet, nearly getting himself kicked several times.  Together, the two men held Duo to the floor, keeping him from moving.  Quatre came forward, resting his hand on Duo's head.

"Settle down, Duo," he pleaded.  "Now is not the time for us to get too upset to carry out our mission.  The mission is what matters, Duo."

"Fuck the mission!" Duo screamed at Quatre, trying to lunge at him.  Trowa held Duo fast to the floor of the carrier. 

"You'll hurt yourself if you don't watch it," Trowa reasoned.

"She was our friend," Duo said softly, suddenly becoming still.  "She was supposed to be our friend."

"I know," Quatre said, keeping his hand on Duo's forehead.

"She left him."

"I know."

"She beat him."

"I know."

Duo sighed and finally Trowa and Wufei released their holds on him.  Duo lay limp on the floor as he closed his eyes, seeing Jinx tenderly holding Heero in his eyelids.  "She could have taken care of him," he said, looking around at the others who were hovered above him.  "She could have given him back everything that Dr. J and Relena stole from him."

None of the other pilots could reply.

"I never told you guys this," Duo started, "but it wasn't Heero's idea to come and move in with me when I started the salvage yard."

"What?" Quatre asked.  "I thought you said it was a partnership."

"It wasn't."  Duo sighed and closed his eyes again, telling his friends of seeing Heero on L4 three years ago…

~flashback~

_Duo skipped through Quatre's mansion.  After staying there for three days while Relena and Heero were visiting, he'd had enough of the good life and needed to get back on the streets.  With his bag over his shoulder, Duo opened the front door, and he immediately tripped over a hunched form on the doorstep._

_"Heero?" the braided boy asked.  "What's going on?"_

_Heero's rain soaked body remained motionless on the ground.  _

_"Heero?" Duo asked again, reaching out to touch his friend.  Heero's body was as cold as the rain, and his skin was pale and tainted with an unhealthy shade of blue.  Duo then noticed the little river of blood that washed away from Heero's body, down the sidewalk, and into the flowerbeds.  _

_"HEERO!" Duo shouted, turning Heero over to look at him.  Heero's eyes were glazed and unfocused.  His hands were trembling, still clutching the mirror-bright blade that had recently made easy work of the flesh around his wrists. _

_Ripping his own shirt, Duo tried to stop the gushing blood from leaking out of Heero's severed veins.  Furiously, he wrapped his friend's wrists and tied the strips of material tightly.  Hang on Heero, Duo thought as he worked.  Hang on._

_"Duo," a cracked voice called to him._

_"Yes, Heero?"_

_"Let me die."_

_"No way."  Duo didn't offer more of an explanation than that and Heero didn't ask anymore.  Even this close to death, Heero recognized a determined Duo when he saw one.  "What happened, Heero?" Duo asked through clenched teeth._

_"She's with him."_

_"Who's with who, Heero?"_

_"Relena and Quatre."_

_Duo just stared at Heero's saddened face.  No way, he thought.  Relena was with Quatre?  Shaking his head, Duo picked Heero up to his feet, leading him down the sidewalk and toward the street.  _

_"Please, Duo.  Let me die."_

_"Never, Heero.  If I have to live with you and chain myself to you to make sure you don't do this again, I will.  You're staying alive, Heero.  No matter how much you may not want to, I'm going to make sure you stay alive."_


	18. Mind Invasion

DISCLAIMER – I do not own Gundam Wing. Chapter Eighteen 

"We can't do it," Quatre's meek voice broke the silence.

"Heero wants us to," Wufei reminded him.

"Blowing up the OZ base artillery storage with our friend trapped in a prison cell below it does not seem like a good idea to me," Quatre insisted.  "What do you think will happen to the ammunition stored above Heero's head?  Do you think it'll just give up and surrender?  That shit's going to explode and kill him, Wufei."

"Heero wants us to."

"I don't care what Heero wants.  We're not going to blow up that base until I know he's safe and out of there," Duo said quietly.

"How do we know he'll be alright after we've gotten him out?" Trowa asked.

"I was able to save him last time," Duo adamantly said.  "I can do it again."

"Making him live with you and work with you in the salvage yard was good for him, but will it work a second time around?  You have to admit that Heero's much more attached to Jinx than he ever was to Relena."  Trowa had a point.  "This may be a blow he can't recover from."

"It's not up to us to decide his fate for him," Duo countered.

"Heero wants us to," Wufei spoke up again.  "We should honor his last wishes."

Duo stood up, shaking with the pain he felt inside.  "They don't have to be his _last_ wishes if we go in there and rescue him!"  

"Shh, everyone," Quatre hushed them.  "There's someone approaching Heero."

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Heero could scarcely hear the bickering taking place on the carrier.  The sounds were distant and indistinguishable from the small headset microphone, but Heero could hear barely enough to tell that his friends were fighting.  For a while they had been quiet, or at least too quiet for Heero to hear voices.  Now they picked up their argument again, with renewed vigor.

That's when Heero noticed the lone pair of footsteps that echoed down the sterile hallways towards his cell.  Within moments, the arguing entering his head from the earpiece halted.  They must have heard the footsteps as well.  Instinctively, Heero began logging information about the steps that approached.  They were light, suggesting someone who was fairly lightweight or very agile.  The sounds were widely spaced, but grew louder as the steps got closer, suggesting that the person had a long stride and walked with purpose toward his cell.  Lightweight and long strides, he thought.  Not the same officer who came before, the burly man.  It almost sounded like…

The door opened, showing a silhouetted figure.  Jinx walked closer to him.

Heero could recognize her scent the moment she opened the door.  He could recognize the shape of her body as she stood in the doorway and watched him a moment before she entered the room.  Struggling slightly, Heero pulled on his chains, lifting his body up from its dangling position so that he stood on the floor.  

Jinx didn't look at him.  She stared at her feet or the ground as she slowly crossed the room.  Meticulously setting one foot directly in front of the other, Jinx walked until she came within one foot of touching Heero.  

She never looked up.

Broken between wanting to kiss her and wanting to wrap his legs around her throat and choke her, Heero could do nothing more than watch her.

Jinx knelt in front of Heero, lowering herself to one knee and keeping her head bent.

Bent in shame, Heero realized as he followed her with his eyes.  Jinx was asking for forgiveness.  That was something he could not give.

But, he thought, she was kneeling in his blood, which was still wet and covered the floor of the cell.  Jinx didn't care about the OZ uniform, and therefore the OZ soldier, as she covered her knee in the prisoner's blood.  She never looked up, and she never attempted to move or speak.

He wanted to forget it ever happened.  He wanted to hold her close and tell her that everything was going to be fine as long as they remained true to each other.  He wanted so many things.

Heero's attention was drawn to something in her hair.  He didn't remember that being there, he thought, noticing a small white disc attached to the right side of her skull and covered by her dark hair.  Shifting his head to the other side, he saw a similar disc on the other side of her head.  His eyes narrowed as he realized what the discs were.  

OZ was trying to break her.  The discs concealed microchips that intercepted her brainwaves, sending a readout of her thoughts to a control room somewhere in the base.  The microchips also continuously hammered against any mental barriers she'd developed to keep them from reading her thoughts.  It was only a matter of time before she was worn down and defeated by the small discs that were hidden under her hair.

It was all clear now.  Jinx couldn't have answered him as he called to her earlier.  She couldn't have sent him reassurance via her mind or voice.  Those signals would have been picked up and interpreted by the twisted persons responsible for attaching the discs to her skull.  If she had let that happen, then the mission would have failed immediately.  Once inside your brain, the intruding signals could not be eradicated.  

Heero growled as he thought about it.  Such devices were once used to interrogate prisoners, until it was shown that prisoners were either killed or driven to insanity because of the intrusion in their minds.  No one used such methods on enemies anymore, and no one had ever subjected their own soldiers to the torture.  No one except the Bravo faction of OZ.  

But he understood.  Now he understood that Jinx had no choice but to submit to the orders of her superior officer.  She had no choice but to not look at him, and not talk to him, or else she could have slipped up in her mind and ruined it all.

Even now, she did not have the strength against the pummeling microchips to speak to him.  Jinx could only kneel in front of him, waiting until he found a way to forgive her.  

Bending his knee slightly, he let the fabric of his flight suit rub lightly against the side of her face.  A sign of forgiveness.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

"Zero," Duo's voice hailed him.  "What was that?  We didn't hear anything after the door closed until it opened and closed again.  What happened?"

Heero smiled to himself.  "Commence with operation 'blow this place out of the sky'," he said.  "Hope is on our side."

"What!?"

"Repeat: Hope has been reborn."

"What makes you say that, Zero?  This could be a trick."

"It's not.  Ever hear of interrogation chips?"

Silence.

"Death?"

"Yea, I've heard of them.  Nasty little bastards."  Everyone disagreed with hacking into someone else's brain to read their thoughts and then making them insane or dead from it.  Interrogation chips were not popular.

"Hope is fighting them."

"Can she fight them?"

"We'll find out."  Heero reflexively looked down to where she had been kneeling moments ago.  Something was on the floor.  His own blood was dried around it, but there was definitely something on the ground.  Curious, and thankful that the OZ guys liked to take off prisoner's shoes, Heero reached out with his foot to grab the shiny object on the ground.  Carefully twisting his body while hanging from the chain, Heero was able to move the small object into his hands.  

His smile widened.

"Can you be sure about this?" Duo asked him, still skeptical of the girl who had given his friend forty lashes. 

"I've just received all the evidence I need," Heero said, using Jinx's picklock to unlock the cuffs that kept him chained in his cell.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Tears fell from her eyes as Jinx left the detention area of the base.  She couldn't allow herself to dwell on the memory of Heero's forgiveness.  She couldn't even allow herself to think of him.  The constant throbbing pain that threatened to tear her head apart was a constant reminder of the ongoing battle in her head.  With each passing second, the intruding electronic signals got closer and closer to breaking down the mental wall she desperately tried to maintain.  

The fabric of her pants soaked with Heero's blood was cold as it brushed against her leg.  She thought of him standing there, fighting with both his emotional and physical pain to remain standing.  She never looked in his eyes when she went to go see him.  She couldn't bring herself to.  Heero saw her as a traitor.  

But he had forgiven her, hadn't he?  Why else would he have brushed his leg against her cheek?  If that offering weren't enough for him to forgive her, then he would surely revoke his harsh feelings when he found the picklock.  

Jinx fell against the doorway, trying to hold herself up.  The pain in her head increased as she fought back against the white discs on either side of her skull.  She'd let her thoughts wander too much and neglected to concentrate on keeping the signals at bay.  Jinx was paying for it now.  She had to give extra concentration to beat the interrogation chips back.  It made her body weak.

After a few moments, she recovered enough to keep walking.  

She made her way to the artillery hangar.  The bombs she'd planted around the many rooms of the hangar after having to lash Heero were still inactive.  Knowing the ex-Gundam pilots, they'd attack the base as soon as Heero unlocks his cuffs and gets out from under the target zone.  She'd have to work quickly in order to make this plan work.

Ripping open the nearest control panel, Jinx sorted through the wires in the wall.  Finally, she found the red and blue striped one she was looking for.  Pulling it from the tangled mess, Jinx used her teeth to scrape away the rubber insulation.  Be careful, she reminded herself.  The red and blue striped wire was live and having her mouth that close to running electricity made her a little nervous.  She made short work of the rubber and had the copper wires below exposed in no time.  

Jinx pulled a detonation device from her jacket pocket.  The detonator was a master control, able to detonate all 52 explosive devises she'd brought onto the base or rigged once she entered the base with one command.  Expertly, she opened the back of the detonator and extended the alligator clip.  Connecting it to the exposed wires of the base alarm system (red and blue striped wire), she adhered the detonator to the wall next to the mangled control panel.

Punching in codes so fast that it would make Heero Yuy proud, Jinx set the detonation of the explosives to coincide with the fire alarm.  The pilots would have to create some heat in the base before the bombs would go off.  Heero breaking out of the storage hangar and taking off in his mobile suit, or one of the other pilots using a thermal weapon, would be sufficient to set off the fire alarms.  

Jinx hurried away from the artillery storage.  She had to make it to her own mobile suit and get off of the base before the pilots blew it up or the interrogation chips hacked into her mind.  On cue, her head began to swim with pain.  

Clutching the wall, Jinx fought to keep control of her own mind.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

"Dragon, this is Clown, over."

"Read you loud and clear, Clown."

"Sandshrew, you in on this convo?"

"Affirmative, Clown."

"How about we show these OZ boys what Gundam pilots can do?" Trowa asked, trying to keep his voice from revealing too much of his glee.  They'd found out that Jinx hadn't double-crossed them.  They'd found out that Heero was picking his handcuffs and breaking out of his cell at this very moment.  

And now they got a chance to shoot down and attack the most brutal cowards ever to exist under the OZ namesake.  The cowards who were responsible for murdering his mother with the same plague that created Jinx in L3, and killing Duo's orphan friends with a similar 'clean up the streets' disease that also took the lives of Sister Helen and Father Maxwell on L2.  These cowards who bombed a peaceful protest and also destroyed hundreds of uninvolved neighborhoods in L5, killing Wufei's wife and his family clan.  These cowards who had poisoned the air of L4 and made natural birth impossible on the colony cluster, which resulted in the death of Quatre's mother.  

If Heero was known to have a family, Trowa was sure that these bastards would have done something on L1 colony cluster to hurt him as well.  But Heero didn't need that kind of an excuse to fight back against Bravo.  They had already violated Jinx by attempting to enter her mind and were going to kill her soon if the pilots couldn't stop OZ.  That was more than enough for Heero to be pissed.  And he had definitely sounded pissed when they drew up this mission plan of action together moments ago.  

"Sounds like a plan to me, Clown," Quatre's voice answered him.

"Anybody know if Zero's got the bait set?" Duo asked, referring to the explosives in the artillery storage area, which were part of the original plan.

"No confirmation on that, Death," Wufei answered.  "We'll have to carry on mission without extra fireworks."

"Fine with me, Dragon," Death answered, chuckling.  "As long as we all get out of here alive, I'm not too worried about the details."

"What about Hope?" Quatre asked.

"Hope's on her own, Sandshrew," Trowa answered.  "There's nothing else we can do for her.  We don't have a way of contacting her or communicating with her as long as the interro-chips are still in place."

The blip that was Duo disappeared from Trowa's screen as Duo went into stealth mode.  

"Let's get this show on the road," he said, using an old circus phrase.

Together, Trowa went with Wufei and Quatre on an all-out frontal attack on the base, giving Duo the chance to sneak around behind enemy lines to help rescue Heero.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Alarms resounded through the hallways as Heero ran barefoot away from his prison cell.  Not wanting to put anything against the sensitive gashes on his back, he opted to leave the upper half of the flight suit around his waist.  A poor nurse shrieked in terror as the bloody and half-naked Heero rushed past her, heading toward the storage hangar.  


	19. Fighting for Escape

DISCLAIMER – I do not own Gundam Wing.

Chapter Nineteen

This wasn't a Gundam, but he was good enough to take on the mass of suits that flooded from the OZ meteor base.  Over the communicator, he heard Quatre apologize to the latest victims.  They had all hoped to get through this with minimal casualties, but when Bravo sent out every suit they owned against the three attacking ex-Gundam pilots, there was little choice in the matter.  In this free-for-all, it was kill or be killed.

And so far, they were doing all the killing.  _Shame_, Wufei thought, bringing his curved sword down on yet another mobile suit and splitting it in half, _I was hoping to fight against an enemy with greater skill_.  

Together he, Quatre, and Trowa picked off the offending suits one by one.  More and more came from the meteor base, but for a military strong hold, they were horribly unprepared for this type of frontal attack.  

"May Allah take pity on your souls…"

Wufei shook his head slightly.  He would never get used to Quatre's incessant apologies.  But for some reason, he couldn't bring himself to turn off the radio.  The Arabian's small merciful prayers captured him.  The empathy radiating from the meek voice made him remember his wife, and Sally.  It made him want to be less of a predator, less of a killing machine.  It kept Wufei human in the midst of chaotic war.

Though Quatre's voice may sound meek at a time when he shouted war cries in his mind, Wufei knew that Quatre was far from weak and submissive.  Quatre was a seasoned soldier, hero, and definite leader.  Wufei had nothing but the utmost respect for all of his fellow pilots. 

"Behind Dragon."  Trowa's voice warned him of a suit that had escaped his own net and was now approaching Wufei's suit.

Wufei spun his suit around easily in the lack of gravity, wielding the large curved sword and slicing through his opponent.  

"Thanks, Clown."

Trowa didn't answer.  He didn't need to.  Just as Wufei really didn't need to thank Trowa.  It was all understood.  

Focusing completely on the enemy suits ahead of him, Wufei entered a deadly dance with his two comrades.  Together, they wove in and out of crossfire, twirled around shots meant for their demise, and countered with blows of their own.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

"May Allah take pity on your souls…"

Duo reached over and turned off the radio connection to Quatre's and the other's suits.  He had his own way of praying for mercy on the enemies he slayed.  Habitually, he reached up and stuck his hand into the unzipped collar of his flight suit.  The small silver cross he wore felt warm in his hand when he closed his fingers around it.  

_Amazing_, he thought.  Any other time when he touched it, the cross was cold as any other metal would be.  But when he was in a mobile suit, a strange and unexplainable warmth permeated the otherwise cool metal.  It was comforting to feel that warmth.

He wondered if Jinx were warm.

Most likely she wasn't.  Duo shuddered as he thought of her, alone in that OZ base they were now attacking.  Tears formed unbidden in his eyes as he remembered her isolated fight against the interrogation chips.  Those chips would tear her mind apart and kill her.  

Little droplets of water floated in front of Duo's face.  Had he cried for her?  He must have.  It was wrong.  It was all so wrong.  She was going through slow and painful suicide.  And Jinx didn't deserve to die for them.  Angels don't deserve to die.  

Beep.  Beep.  Beep…

Duo looked down at his consol.  The base had spotted him.  He knew it was a possibility.  No matter how he bragged, he wasn't good enough to rig a complete stealth cloak from the materials available from an old mobile suit and a junkyard.  What was that he'd told Heero years ago?  Something about needing parts…Heero would remember.  

Beep…

He'd been able to make the stealth cloak good enough to hide from suits and perhaps invading spacecraft, but the detectors on the base were much stronger than those of the mobile suits.  He always knew the OZ base would be able to pick up his signal.  

Beep.

Bright light illuminated the cockpit for a split second as the cannon blast from the base whizzed past his view.  Both of his hands gripped hard on the pilot stick.

Beep.

It was a chance he'd decided to take though.  He'd assured Quatre and Trowa that the suit he was in would be completely undetectable by anything, even the base.  That marked the first time in his known memory that he'd purposefully lied.  And he'd lied to two of his best friends.

Beep.

Another bright light momentarily blinded him.  They keep aiming up and to the left, he observed.  He may not be invisible, but he was able to scramble his signal successfully.  That made his signal appear in one place, while his actual suit was in another.  

Beep.

He'd lied to his friends, but he did it to save another friend.  That made it ok, didn't it?  As if in answer, the weight of the cross around his neck (which had a habit of getting gradually heavier and heavier as he continued during a mission) lightened a little.  Yes, that made it all ok.

Beep.

The base didn't fire again.  Apparently they'd figured out that their instruments were reading his position wrong.  And now the suit was too close to the base for them to swiftly move the cannons and resume aiming at him.  Those were long-range cannons.

The beeping stopped when the base stopped tracking him with the cannons.  Supposedly, no more suits were available at the base, because none were sent out to destroy the one suit that slipped past the defenses.  

OZ realized that the three suits engaged in battle with their troops were a decoy.  And OZ realized it too late.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

Heero knew he was leaving a little trail of blood as he rushed down the hallways, frantically looking for a way to get to the storage hangar.  But thankfully, most of the soldiers in this small base were in mobile suits and fighting against a Clown, Dragon, and Sandshrew.  The hallways were uncommonly empty due to the decoy fight outside.

His feet padded softly and swiftly past an open closet.  Peripheral vision told him that a woman doctor was in that closet, checking through supplies.  

Nearly falling as he skidded to a stop, Heero scrambled back to the open closet door.  He launched himself around the corner of the doorway and reached down to hold the young woman by the throat.

"Where's the storage hangar?" he demanded, emphasizing his need for a speedy and precise answer by shoving her back against the shelves.

Her eyes were wide with horror and she only whimpered in his grip.

Taking a deep breath, Heero relaxed his hold on her throat and spoke more softly.  "Where is the storage hangar?  I need to know, _now_."

The unfortunate woman swallowed uneasily and lifted her hand to point in the direction Heero just came from.  "Turn left at the next hall and there's a lift chute.  Storage hangar is on the top floor."  She looked down at Heero.  "You're bleeding."

"Thanks," Heero said, dropping his hand from her neck.  "You better get out of here.  This base will blow up soon," he added as he resumed running through the hallways.

The old Heero would have analyzed and torn apart everything she'd just said.  The old Heero would have assumed that the poor doctor who came across his path was a tool of the enemy, just there to confuse him and throw him off the path to his goal.  

This Heero trusted her.  She was a doctor, after all.  Doctors weren't known for wanting to lead people to their deaths.  And he didn't have the time to second-guess her advice.  He slipped as he rounded the corner of the first hallway on the left.  The lift chutes were straight ahead.  At least that much of it had been true.  

Inside, he pressed the button for the top floor, which was actually the first floor.  This base was built inside the meteor and the top floor was located on the outside surface of the meteor while all other floors were built down into the rock.  The floor numbers increased as their depth increased.  

He took a deep breath while he waited for the elevator to rise.  Now he had the time to analyze the information the woman doctor had given him.  And he had no reason to denounce it as false.  It made sense that the storage hangar was on the top floor.  That was the floor closest to space, and therefore it was easier to open the roof of the hangar and lower supplies in rather than have them transported down into the base to some other level.  Likewise, the artillery storage and suit hangars must be on the top floors for easy access.  

Ding.

Heero crouched behind the edge of the doors and peered around into the hallway.  There was no hallway.  The doctor had been right.  He didn't have to worry about finding the storage hangar.  The top floor _was_ the storage hangar.  

The guard's post had been abandoned in a hurry.  The station's door was open, and Heero could see the array of guns and light ammo stored in the guard station.  He crept over and loaded a handgun.  He would have chosen a larger and heavier piece, but he doubted he'd encounter much resistance in the storage hangar.  Checking to see the safety was on, Heero stuffed the gun in the back of his suit's waist.  

"Ouch," he said out loud.  Another reason not to grab a semi.  The slashes on his back were still sensitive, and a larger gun meant more aggravating rubs against his injured back.

Crouching, Heero made his way silently and speedily through the hangar, stopping behind conveniently placed at random intervals along the floor.  All the while, his eyes were searching.  Searching.

_There_, he thought to himself, stealing toward the wall on his left.  His mobile suit was secured to the wall by large steel clamps.  _Worry about that later,_ he told himself as he scrambled up the ladder and to the cockpit.

Heero ignored the stinging pain he felt as his back pressed against the surface of the pilot's seat.  In record time, Heero had the suit system up and running.  

"Death?" Heero said uneasily into the radio.  He was sure someone had to be monitoring radio signals originating from the base, but he had to use the suit's radio since he'd crushed his earpiece before leaving his cell.  "Death, do you copy?"

Sighing, Heero grabbed the portable radio headset and adjusted it to his head.  He peeled his back from the seat and winced at the ripping pain.  Of course, he was making his injuries worse by ignoring them, but right now he needed to get out of this base.  He could worry about blood loss later.  First he had to make sure he got out of here to live long enough to die of blood loss.  

"Death…Death…Death…" he continued hailing into the communicator as he crawled back down the suit and began trying to hack through the locks on his suit.

The click of the safety made him draw his gun and turn around, aiming where he'd heard the sound.  The scruffy-looking officer who had made Jinx whip him stood with a gun pointed at Heero's head.  He was on the ground and a good ten feet away, but Heero could tell that the gun was aimed at his head.

"Nice to know that you're calling for what you'll receive next," the man growled.  

"I wasn't talking to you," Heero said with a snarl.  He didn't have time for this mess.  "And I don't have time for this mess."

The man ignored Heero's foul mood and continued bothering him with conversation.  "I followed your blood trail here, Yuy.  And I suppose your little girlfriend helped you escape from your cell, after she beat you senseless.  But it doesn't matter.  If the interrogation chips haven't already killed her, they soon will.  Revenge has already…"

Heero's remorseless shot echoed through the hangar, resonating off of the many smooth surfaces of walls, floor, and boxes.  The officer never got to finish his insult of Jinx.  His body lay in a growing pool of his own blood.  Heero didn't feel like the scruffy man's life was much to mourn over.  He turned his attention back to the clamp locks.

"That was loud…"  Heero's head snapped up again at the new sound in his ears.  After a split moment, he realized he was hearing through his headset.  

"Death?" he asked the voice.

"Righto, good chum.  Let's say we skidaddle out of here and get a spot of tea, eh?" a British accent answered him.

Heero rolled his eyes as the locks finally turned green and the clamps released.  "What is that?" 

"An attempt at humor, my good friend," Death said, returning to his American accent and laughing out loud.  Heero found himself smiling at the sound of his friend's laughter.  "Was that a gunshot earlier?"

"Yea."

"You been shot?"

"Nope."

Heero heard a sigh of relief.  "Good.  So where are you?"

"About to bust out of this place," Heero said as he strapped himself into the pilot's seat.  He ripped off the headset and threw it across the cockpit.  Those things always got in his way when he was fighting.

"Did you just throw me?" Duo asked.

"Sorry, man," Heero said, typing in a few commands to the system.  "So what do you think?  Cut open the ceiling or just fly through the roof?"  

He heard Duo grunt before he answered, "I'm fending off a couple bad guys up here.  You might want to just fly out and avoid drawing too much attention to yourself."

"Agreed.  Warning them of my being here by cutting through the roof first seems like a bad idea."  Heero grinned as his grip tightened around the controls.  "Head on back to the boys, I'll see you in a minute."

"Kay, bud," was all he heard before the sounds of his thrusters reverberated in his ears and throughout the entire meteor base.  Dimly somewhere in the back of his mind, he was aware of the fire alarm going off milliseconds before he burst through the ceiling and out into open space.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

Quatre stared in disbelief as explosions tore along the equator of the meteor base.  He saw several specks of light streak away from the base as the entire meteor began to shake and rumble.  A violent shudder ripped the base apart as a huge fireball suddenly expelled from the center of the meteor, only to be just as quickly swallowed and quelled by the vacuum of space.  

Involuntarily, he ducked in his pilot's chair as dust particles and shards of rock, steel, and glass rattled against his suit's monitor sensors.  He felt his suit begin to plummet through the emptiness of space, not knowing which way he faced but aware only of being thrown in the direction opposite of the base.  

Hurrying with the controls and praying quickly under his breath, Quatre fought and regained control of his mobile suit.  He turned in the direction of the base, only to see that fragments remained.  The meteor was demolished, and the OZ faction known as Bravo had been destroyed along with it.  


	20. A New Heero

DISCLAIMER – I do not own Gundam Wing.

Chapter Twenty

Heero winced as he accepted yet another hug.  Funny how a couple of weeks ago, all the affection he allowed his friends to show him was a firm hand on the shoulder.  Now he was busy hugging Duo, Quatre, Sally, Hilde, and Catherine.  Quite a jump in the affection-meter.

"You should let me look at that, Heero," Sally said, looking at the little smears of blood on her hands.  Heero's back was still bleeding slightly.  

He nodded, and she went to retrieve some supplies.  Heero looked around Noin's ship while he waited for Sally to return.  Catherine was busy switching between kissing her brother and kissing Quatre.  Wufei was talking to Noin, and Heero thought he was also waiting for Sally to return.  Even though she refused to admit she cared about him, Hilde fussed over Duo, making sure he wasn't hurt and didn't have any wounds the way Heero did.  Duo finally got tired of her asking questions and tackled her in a kiss.  Heero tried not to laugh as Hilde blushed a bright red.

"Ouch," Heero blurted out as something stung his back.

"Hold still, Heero," Sally instructed.  She rubbed more antiseptic onto his back, cleaning his neglected open wounds.  

"I can't believe I just heard Heero Yuy say ouch," Duo teased, holding Hilde around the waist.  She squirmed out of his grip, but continued to hold his hand.

"He's been doing a lot of things that we wouldn't believe lately," Wufei said, handing Sally a fresh sponge and assisting her in cleaning Heero's back.  

Heero remained silent, biting the inside of his lip as the stinging pain of Sally's ministrations on his back increased.  He closed his eyes when she started using a simple needle and biodegradable thread to stitch up some of his larger slashes.  Carefully placing sterile gauze, Sally put padding over the opened skin.  

"Wufei, help me," she said quietly.  Wufei came around in front of Heero and took the wrapping she offered.  Together, they succeeded in holding the pads in place while wrapping cloth around Heero's torso to protect his back.  "You can put your arms down now, Heero," the doctor said as she finished.

"Thanks, Sally," Heero said, smiling at her wearily.

"You look tired," Cathy said, coming over and peering into Heero's eyes.  

Quatre came up behind her, putting a hand on her waist.  "You've had a hard day, Heero.  You should probably rest."

"Has it only been one day?" he asked.  It seemed like it was years ago when they had all been safe at Relena's palace and decided to leave in the middle of the night to go on this crazy mission.  It seemed like years ago when Jinx had abused him in the hold of the OZ base's detention cell.  Jinx.  "Has anyone heard from Jinx?" he asked.

Faces looked sad and hopeless.  "We think she may have survived for a while after you saw her Heero," Trowa explained.  "The base blew apart moments after you escaped the hangar.  That gives us reason to believe that she was alive long enough to set the detonation on those explosives.  She carried out that part of the mission, Heero."

Heero's face set in a stern expression.  "The mission…" he repeated with a distant tone to his voice.  He stumbled a little as he got off the table.  

Trowa was there, supporting him with an arm around his shoulders.  

"Rest, Heero."  He heard several different voices say softly.  They all wanted him to go to bed.  To close his eyes and forget that Jinx was still out there somewhere, floating through space.  No, who was he kidding?  Jinx was dead.  She had to stay behind and set off the explosives.  She killed herself to fulfill the parameters of the mission that fell in her delegation.  All logic led down one road, and that said Jinx didn't survive the destruction of the base.  

His knees felt weak.  Even with Trowa's strong arm around him, Heero swayed and started to fall again.  Before he knew what was happening, he felt his feet lifted off of the ground and his body swing perpendicular.  Normally, he would have fought against Trowa.  He would have fought against his own swimming mind and tried to walk himself to a bed nearby.  But he was not normal now.  His thoughts focused on her.  And he couldn't bring himself to fight against the support and love that his comrades were showing him now.  Heero snuggled his head into Trowa's chest and settled down.  

*   *   *   *   *   *   * 

"How is he?" Quatre asked when Trowa returned to the room where all of them had gathered.  This room was like a little kitchen and den in one, for the comfort of the crew members on Noin's craft.  

"Duo's staying with him," Trowa explained.  He sat down on a couch and put an arm around Cathy.  Quatre was too busy pacing back and forth behind the couch to give too much affection to Catherine.  

"But will he be ok?" Quatre asked another question, reaching the coffee maker and turning back around to walk across the room to the refrigerator.  

"No one can tell but him," Trowa answered

"He will search for her."  They directed their attention to Wufei who was getting up from the other couch.  "He will search for her until he finds her body."

"There won't be much of a body to find," Hilde said softly.

Sally stood up next to Wufei.  "Won't Noin be sending a sweep crew?  Can't they look for traces of her mobile suit or something?  Maybe she was able to get away from the base in time," she said.  It was against her character to cling to false hope, but she had to stay positive in the group of pessimists.  

Quatre stopped pacing.  "I'm going out with the sweepers."

Trowa stood up from the couch and have Catherine a sad look.  Silently he followed as Quatre walked out of the room in the direction of the mobile suit hangar.  

"I'll go over the data collected before the blast," Wufei offered.  "There might be something useful in there."  

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

Something was wrapped around his hand.

Before Heero even opened his eyes, he knew that someone or something was next to him in bed, and something was wrapped around his hand.  He gingerly lifted his arm, not disturbing the sleeping body curled up next to him, and peered at the long braid wrapped around his hand.  For a moment, hope flickered in his chest.

It was Duo.

Heero let out a sigh and brushed his hand over Duo's sleeping face and head.  Duo stirred a little, but he didn't wake up.  Heero couldn't help but smile at him.  How many times had they needed to get up early in the morning and Heero had to shout in the American's ear to wake him up?  Sliding his arm out from under Duo's resting head and putting a pillow there instead, Heero stole out of bed and cringed when his feet hit the cold floor.  He hadn't remembered taking off his shoes, but Trowa must have done that.  

Not knowing what time it was, but only aware that it was early in the morning, Heero made his way down the hallway and to the common room they'd all been in earlier.  Sally was asleep on the couch.  Why wasn't she in a room?  

A faint glow from behind a control room door caught his attention, and Heero pushed it open slowly, peering inside.  That's why.  Wufei was busy at a consol, reviewing data of some sort.  Reviewing in binary.  Heero found himself analyzing what he saw.  Binary meant that the data was of the primary computer systems of…he watched the numbers scroll across the screen…the data told of air circulators and atmosphere regulators.  On a time grid.  Other random information about living conditions scrolled across the screen.  The system was too large to be Noin's ship.  It looked like information off a small base or satellite.  

"So you're up, Yuy?"

Wufei's voice snapped him out of his analysis of the simple binary data.  "Yea," he managed to say softly without waking Sally behind him.  He carefully entered the room and shut the door behind him.  Several monitors were on and glowing binary numbers at him.  Another had a schematic of the meteor base on it.  Voices were talking from somewhere on a couple of different radio speakers.  Trowa and Quatre's faces were visible on another two smaller monitors.  They seemed to be concentrating on something.  

"Where are they?" Heero asked, motioning toward the two on the screen and pulling up a chair to sit next to Wufei.  

"Sweeping the debris of the base."

"For me?"

"For her."  

Heero was silent a moment.  His friends were out there, after having fought a battle for hours outside of the meteor base.  Out there in cold space rather than in here, warm and content lying in bed.  He had such good friends.  "What are you doing?  Going over the base systems?"

Nodding, Wufei answered, "I'm not as good at this stuff as you, but I have found something interesting."

"What's that?"

"Evidence that Jinx is alive somewhere."

Heero leaned forward and looked at Wufei expectantly, hope shining bright in his deep blue eyes.  "How good of evidence?"

"Well," Wufei started, trying not to smile at his friend's earnest or his own glee, "I found that the security log reports a break in of the mobile suit hangar.  A private busted through security codes and stole a mobile suit in the confusion of the battle when Duo appeared so close to the base.  Keep in mind, a lot of soldiers launched from that hangar when Duo's mobile suit evaded the cannons of the base, but the security log does report an unauthorized launch."

Heero nodded violently and hung on to each word from Wufei's mouth as he spoke.

"And another thing.  About three nanoseconds before the base exploded into dust, the fire alarms went off."

A confused look crossed Heero's face for a moment before his eyes brightened again.  "She set the explosives to respond to the fire alarm," he reasoned.

"That's what I thought," Wufei said.  "She had to know that you'd go to the storage hangar and bust out of there.  Or that one of us would fire a shot into the base whenever you got safely out.  All being considered, it's a safe bet that the fire alarm would eventually be triggered in the base, and most likely it would be done after you escaped from the base."

"She had to…" Heero breathed.  

"That's what I think," Wufei smiled as he spoke.  "So keep your hopes up."

Heero smiled back.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

Quatre's mansion seemed to shine as they walked up to it.  It'd been three days since the attack on the meteor base.  Three days since they'd witnessed it explode into a million different pieces.  Three days and they'd had no contact from Jinx.

Heero took a deep breath.  He was glad Relena wasn't around right now.  The silly girl had her authority revoked over this incident and now was in the middle of negotiating with the Executive Counsel to get herself into one of the chairs.  It didn't matter what happened to her, he decided, just as long as she wasn't around during his recuperation time.  

He watched Quatre and Cathy skip up the steps, hand in hand.  It tugged his heart a little to see them so happy together.  But he wished them all the happiness in the world, no matter how he ached to find that happiness again with Jinx.  Sally and Wufei quit worrying about the public display thing and were now comfortable walking with arms around each other.  Their sharing of a room on Noin's ship was not secret, and no one bothered Wufei about it as he promised a slow death to anyone who disturbed his and Sally's new living arrangements.  Even Duo and Hilde seemed to be getting back together, but Hilde was stubborn and going to make Duo work extra hard to regain her affections.  

Maguanacs assaulted them from all sides when they entered the mansion.  Gifts and praise showered down on them, and they were promised a large feast and much dancing later that evening.  Duo brightened at the mention of food.  His happy face fell a little though, when he remembered that Jinx was missing from their entourage.  

When the faithful Maguanacs left them in peace and went to prepare the feast, the pilots fell silent.  Wufei tightened his grip around Sally and looked mournfully at the swords hung above the fireplace mantle, remembering when he and Jinx had sparred in Relena's gym.  Trowa stared out the large windows at the gardens in Quatre's yard.  Quatre wept openly, and Catherine cradled his head against her chest as he sobbed quietly.  Duo too, wiped tears from his eyes as he thought of her.  The last time they were here, he almost laughed at the absurdity, Heero had thought Jinx liked _him_.  Heero had been so wrong.

Heero sighed loudly.  He wasn't crying.  He'd cried for three days while waiting to hear of something from Jinx.  But they'd never gotten a signal from her.  They'd never found pieces of her mobile suit.  They'd never found any other evidence to support that she was alive or dead, that she even existed at all.  

"I'm going to sleep before the feast," he said with a polite smile.  He knew they would all be worried about him.

"We'll be right here, Heero," Hilde said, giving him a little kiss on the cheek.  

Heero smiled and looked around the room before he started up the stairs.  The walk down the hallway to his room was long, and he swore he could hear his footsteps echo on the soft carpet.  No, that was his heart thumping that he could hear.  He shook his head.  _Just what I need_, he thought,_ to go crazy and hear things_.  

Pushing the door of his room open slowly, he dumped his small bag on the floor inside the door.  He stared.  Was he seeing things too?  

The figure in his bed rolled over and moaned softly in her sleep.  

Heero held his breath.  If he breathed or made too much of a sound, she might disappear.  He slipped off his shoes and socks, keeping in mind how she liked him in jeans with bare feet, and he made his way across the lush carpet to the large bed.  

Slowly, he reached his hand out to touch her.  His hand wavered in the air above her face snuggled in the pillow.  Was she real?  Heero gently ran his fingertips over her forehead, pushing her bangs away from her face to see it more clearly.  She stirred in her sleep again.

Her crimson colored eyes widened when she saw him standing there.  She smiled.  She rolled onto her back and reached up to him.  Heero fell onto her, holding her close and shuddering as relief and happiness washed over him.

 He kissed her lightly and rolled over on the bed, gathering her into his arms.  She snuggled her head against his chest and wrapped an arm around his waist.  Already, she was beginning to fall asleep again.  He could feel her heart beat against his side where she curled up over him.  Heero's fingers sought out the areas of her head where the interrogation chips had been implanted.  Hair had been ripped out in perfect circles on the side of her head.  She'd pulled them off herself.  She was still tired from having to fight against them.

Just as Heero was about to succumb to the sleep that tugged heavily on his conscious, thudding footsteps ran down the hallway in his direction. 

"She's here, Heero!  Her mobile suit is outside!  She's…" Duo burst into his room yelling.  He stopped short when he saw Heero lying in the middle of his bed with Jinx curled in the nook of his arm and side.  Duo grinned brightly and walked to the side of the bed.

Jinx opened her eyes again, having been awakened by Duo's yelling.  She didn't stir from her comfortable position against Heero, but she reached her arm over her head.  Duo took her searching hand in his and kissed it gently.  She smiled contentedly and pulled on his hand.  

Duo took the hint and crawled onto the bed.  Jinx rubbed her cheek lightly against Heero's chest and held Duo's arm tightly around her.  She drifted off to sleep between the two of them.

"Everything is going to be ok now," Heero said in a soft voice to Duo, running his hand over Jinx's dark hair and admiring her sleeping form.

"No," Duo said with a smile as he closed his eyes.  "Everything is going to be great."

_____

Ha ha, total sappy ending!  I love it!  You didn't think I'd have some angsty ending, did you?  Hope you enjoyed.  


End file.
